Life's Under No Obligation to Give Us What We Expect
by Kchev11
Summary: Hope Nelson: aged 16, brown hair, blue eyes, and an attitude. What do you expect from a girl growing up in foster care? For all of her life, Hope had been completely on her own, always trusting herself more than others. But what will happen when her family, her biological family, suddenly shows up out of nowhere? Will she go with them, or will she continue to do things by herself?
1. A Cop Car

**Hey fellow readers, what's up?**

 **So, I shouldn't be writing this, but we all know that don't we? But I couldn't get this idea out of my head since it's been in my head for a while now! I hope you guys enjoy!**

 **And of course, I do NOT own the Originals or any of the characters involved in the show.**

It had officially been 16 years since Hope had been sent away, and the compound couldn't be anymore glum.

The lights had been forever dimmed, sometimes covering up the blood stained across the wall from Hayley or Klaus's frustrated outbursts. The city of New Orleans had learned to fear the two of them for what they had done to their family. That little girl was supposed to keep the family together, but she had ultimately torn them apart.

Kol and Finn had both been brought back to life by Esther, who confided into her children just why Hope had to be killed. Dahlia would've come after her.

Of course that brought up a whole bunch of problems when their long lost sister had suddenly showed up and killed Esther before she could turn all of her children into humans.

But that had been years ago, and everyone had fallen into a darkness that nobody was able to bring a light into.

Kol had been saddened by the fact that he was never able to meet his niece, though he wouldn't admit that to anyone. Being back into his original body, he drowned his frustrations in blood, much like Hayley did, but he had a bit less of revenge to fulfill.

Speaking of the newly turned hybrid, she was still as out of control as ever. Her emotions were all over the place and that didn't help now with everything that happened. She had managed to calm down a bit over the years, but not by much.

Elijah had been worried over Hayley for years, but she hadn't let him in until recently, their relationship finally getting off after years of delay. But he, too, missed the child that he had fought Klaus so hard for. He wanted her to be back, but they had lost her.

Rebekah was possibly the most saddened of Hope's absence after Klaus and Hayley. She had spent a few months with the child, just enough time to get her totally wrapped around her finger. And then like a snap of her fingers, the little girl was gone.

Finn, as well as Kol, was depressed that he couldn't meet the youngest Mikaelson, but he knew that it was for the best that Dahlia never to get ahold of the child. He held himself together for his family as he slowly reconnected with all of them, especially his older sister.

Freya almost burst out into tears at the fact that Hope had been killed by the witches. She wished that she could've helped the little girl instead of letting Dahlia get ahold of her, who she had only just defeated. She wished that she could've been there sooner.

Only Elijah, Rebekah, Klaus, and Hayley knew about Hope's actual fate. The little girl had been sent away for her safety with Rebekah, but they knew that the witches would never stop hunting her, so they sent her away to a foster home. After they had defeated the witches, they visited the fostering home only to find that Hope had been passed on to a different family.

They searched for so long, but they couldn't even find a trace of the little girl. And because of that, New Orleans had suffered from the emotional turmoil of the most powerful family of eternity.

But now, everything would change. Everything would be better, because Hope Mikaelson had finally been found.

 **HM**

Hope Nelson smirked underneath her dark hoodie. The same hoodie that she got arrested twice in. Possibly a third time by how things were going in the day.

She had met up with Darrin, a friend of hers from one of her earlier foster homes. He was crazy, but so was she.

He had almond colored skin and chocolate eyes that blended nicely with his light brown hair. He had bright white teeth that could fool any girl into falling in love with him. Well...almost every girl.

She had always seen Darrin as a best friend, maybe even a brother, but never a love interest. And the best part was that he felt the exact same way. At least Hope thought so considering that he was dating a gorgeous girl by the name of Nicolette.

But the problem in that was that Nicolette didn't know anything about what Darrin actually did. He sold drugs for a living, which, as you might guess, is a pretty risky business. But when you live on the south side of Chicago, everything you do is pretty risky business.

"Hey, you sure about this?" Darrin asked, sporting his own dark hoodie. They probably looked very suspicious in broad daylight with such dark clothing, but they didn't care. Anybody who saw their faces would probably back down within a second.

Hope hadn't always lived in Chicago. She spent quite a lot of time in California, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, New York, etc. She had even seen her file and saw that she was born in New Orleans, so she could say that she was pretty multicultural.

But she had stayed in Chicago the longest. And she was staying in the same neighborhood as Darrin, which is how they met in the first place.

The south side of Chicago was a dangerous place. Anybody with half a brain knew that. A family had decided to foster her, but they simply needed the money for themselves, and they didn't exactly care about taking care of her.

That was where her and Darrin's friendship blossomed. They were both the youngest in their families, which meant that they were the last ones to get food, if any. So, they turned to stealing anything they could get heir hands on. As long as it was something that could keep them satisfied.

But then, people started hearing about them, and Hope especially gained a reputation, which was the reason for her two arrests. Her hands were sneaky, and people in Chicago appreciated that trait. If you could steal, you were alright. If you were alright, you didn't get killed.

Darrin warned her a lot about the risks of certain jobs, especially when the killers wanted her to steal certain evidence off the police. Of course, Hope knew these risks, and she loved them at the same time.

There was nothing more fun that taking a few risks once in a while.

"Yea," Hope finally answered, her bright blue eyes trained on the cop car parked outside. "I'm sure."

Darrin looked at her cautiously, but didn't say anything. She tightened her grip on the aluminum bat, her other hand clutching the blue spray paint in her hoodie pocket.

She knew what she was supposed to do.

She just didn't know if she'd get away with it.

Someone by the name of Jack called her out, wanting her to trash a cop's car. She didn't really know why, something about a friend of his getting thrown into jail for no reason blah, blah, blah. She didn't really care. She was practically jumping with adrenaline.

"Okay," she said to Darrin, turning to look at him intensely. "If I go down, promise to take care of Lynx?"

Lynx was Hope's cat. Well, _technically,_ it wasn't her cat, since the animal didn't have a collar or anything like that, but she was basically hers. When Hope had gotten to her most recent foster home about a year ago, she saw a small kitten walking around the neighborhood. Of course, being the animal lover Hope was, she fed the cat any scraps she was left with. Ever since then, the beige colored cat had followed her practically everywhere she went, excluding the city of course.

Darrin shook his head with a smile. "Still worrying about that cat?" he asked, sticking his hands into his front pocket to ward off the chill in the city.

Hope shrugged, smirking just a bit. "Of course. Who else will?"

That seemed to leave him speechless as she turned back around, assessing the situation she was about to throw herself into. The cops that drove the car to the neighborhood were currently in a house across the street, looking pretty tired. Maybe they won't be out too quickly. Hope might actually get a chance for this.

"Okay," she said again, turning to Darrin and holding out one hand. He stared at her strangely for a moment before chuckling and taking one of his gloved hands out of his pocket.

Hope smiled before she and Darrin did their specialty handshake. Hope practically begged Darrin for them to make one, and he just recently obliged, which of course, made her want to do the handshake at any probable time.

She turned back around. Her light brown hair was tied back into a tight ponytail underneath the hoodie. She was wearing dark jeans that had gotten faded and a bit ripped over the years, a loose shirt sporting a band of some sort, and her trusty black hoodie. Her hands were clear of gloves, seeing as she could never keep her hands on some before her other foster siblings stole them from her. She had on her ankle combat boots, black of course to hide the dirt.

If you looked at Hope straight on, you could obviously see that there was history in her face. She had seen quite a bit in her many, _many,_ foster homes. Her right cheek had a small, white scar that stood out a bit against her slightly tan skin. She could almost laugh at the memory that caused the small scar.

But she had something to do.

With newly found confidence that Hope barely knew she had inside of her, she strutted across the dingy street toward the polished cop car, her left hand holding the bat over her shoulder while her right hand remained in her pocket and around the spray can.

She clutched the spray can tighter and looked around once. She saw that nobody was watching and quickly jumped into action.

Hope was...somewhat of an artist. She loved, absolutely loved, to sign what she created. And this was no different.

She pulled out the spray can quickly and prayed a giant letter "H" onto the hood of the car in bright blue paint, being quick as she threw the can over her shoulder to join the rest of the trash on the street.

Then, she clutched the bat tightly and took a hard swing to the windshield, shattering it instantly. Hope had always been strong for a girl, and with her line of work, she had to make sure that her strength was upheld.

Immediately, the car alarm went off, making Hope quicken her actions, knowing that she wouldn't have much time left. She dented in one of the doors, almost hitting it off its hinges. The windows were all smashed, as were the headlights. Hope couldn't help but smirk at the ruckus she was causing.

But then she heard them.

"Hey!" A voice said from behind and Hope whirled around to see two men, the police officers, running from across the street toward her, looking pissed off.

Hope smirked and dropped the bat into the open window, knowing that she could get other bats if she needed to. Then, she ran.

It always seemed like her days ended like this.

She heard the two cops behind her, one white with dark hair and light eyes and the other black with dark hair and dark eyes. But they both wore the police uniforms. That was all that mattered to her at the moment.

She could distantly hear Darrin laughing a bit at the faces of the cops and couldn't help grin to herself as she ran deeper into the city, making it her mission to lose the two cops behind her.

It was easy to lose someone in a crowd, and that was exactly Hope's goal. She just needed to lose them before she'd be able to hide out at Darrin's house for a while. He'd help her out for a bit but after about a week she might have to find a new place considering that Darrin's parents would probably find her pretty soon.

As she was thinking all of this, she ran as fast as she could into the more nicer part of Chicago, the shops and the way people were dressing easily telling her the difference.

She needed to get into the crowd. She needed to go through the malls.

Hope had a crazy idea.

And of course, she's going through with it.

Hope surprised the cops chasing her when she suddenly split into a Macy's store, running up the escalator and pushing people out of the way. She ignored the protests and the angry words hurled at her and simply winked over her shoulder at the people she pushed around.

She went past the cashiers who were calling security, heading straight to the fire escape that she knew only this Macy's had. She knew her shops.

She swung herself out the window once she opened it, hurrying down the steps and into the back alley.

Where she found backup.

"Freeze!" Someone yelled, and Hope slowly turned around, only to be met with quite a few cops at the end of the alley, the two cops she had run from coming down the fire escape behind her.

Hope could fight pretty well. Hell, she was _excellent_ at fighting. But she was also smart. She knew she was outnumbered, and if she actually tried to fight back, she'd probably only make things worse for her.

So, for the third time in her life, Hope raised her hands in a mock surrender, a smirk plastered across her face as some cops came toward her with their guns drawn just in case. In less than a minute, she was in silver handcuffs and being roughly pushed into a cop car that was much better than the one she had just left.

But, as she was getting into the car, she felt someone's eyes upon her.

She hated being watched without knowing who it was. It was one of Hope's biggest pet peeves. Because she knew someone was watching her, she just didn't know who.

Luckily, before the car drove off, Hope caught the eyes of a tall man with a suit, staring at her in confusion and a bit of wonder. Hope shrugged the look off, knowing that she would get a lot of stares from the store she had just come through, so she might as well get used to it for a few more minutes.

 **HM**

Elijah watched the cop car drive off, alarm bells going off inside his head. He was in the store, having gotten a call from Rebekah to get her a specific dress from there as he was going back down to New Orleans after checking Chicago for any sign of Hope. It was one of the last places they had a lead toward.

As he was walking through the store, you could imagine his surprised when suddenly, a girl came bursting into the store and running through it like the devil was chasing her. She threw herself out the window and onto the fire escape, being quickly followed by two police officers. This instantly caught Elijah's attention, because he was curious as to what the girl could've done to get into trouble with the police.

He had walked to the window like many of the other customers and watched as the girl raised her hands to the officers' guns. But there was a smirk on her lips and a certain glint in her eyes that instantly made Elijah remind himself of Kol or Klaus. She also seemed very much at ease with getting handcuffs placed on her, so Elijah wondered how many times this had actually happened.

It was when he caught her gaze that it all clicked. Her hair was the same color as Hayley's if not a bit lighter, but it was mostly her eyes that gave her away.

Her eyes were the exact same.

They had a dark outline around her iris, making her eyes seem a bit darker when in reality, they weren't really. They had a glint exactly like Kol's in her eyes, but she was smart enough to know she shouldn't fight like Finn or even himself.

But there was also just the hint of the devil in her blue orbs, and she had Elijah convinced.

His heart had skyrocketed as the car slowly left toward the police stations. Could this be it? Could this be the break that his family desperately needed? Could this even remotely help them regain a semblance of family again?

But most of all...

Could this be an end of their suffering and worry over the little girl they had lost so many years ago.

Quickly, Elijah pulled out his phone, dialing a number as he left the store, Rebekah's dress completely forgotten.

 _"Elijah,"_ Klaus's voice said from the other line. _"So very nice to hear from you. How's Chicago treating you?"_

"Niklaus, I do not have time for useless banter," Elijah said seriously into the phone, cutting his younger brother off. "I think I found her."

It was quiet for a very long time on the other end before Niklaus spoke again. " _You found her?_ " His voice was just a tad bit hopeful, and Elijah couldn't help but smile just a bit.

"Yes, brother," he replied, heading toward the police station. "We have our Hope back."

 **Okay guys, there's the very first chapter!**

 **I know it isn't much, but I wanted to hear some feedback before I continue with the story.**

 **Questions of the chapter: What did you guys think of Hope's character in this storyline? What do you think will happen when she meets Elijah? And how will she react to the supernatural world?**

 **I would absolutely LOVE to hear the answers to these questions or any other kind of comment in the reviews below, so if you could leave one, that would be great!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	2. A Dinner Gone Wrong

**Okay guys, so I got a bunch of feedback for this story so I'm updating it right now so you guys could get a bit more information over who Hope is nowadays! ;)**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy!**

Hope walked across the room to lean against the cool bars keeping her in her holding cell. Her arms fell through the spaces in a lazy manner as she set her elbows on the bar crisscrossing it. She had been frisked before entering he police station and she had gotten her hoodie taken off of her "just in case." The policemen here knew just what Hope was capable of with just a hoodie.

"Hey!" she yelled down he hall, hearing her voice carry. She knew that the men could hear her, but she shouted again anyway. " _Hey_!"

Finally, she distantly heard footsteps coming toward her and she smiled jokingly at the person facing her.

It was Max, a police officer that Hope had many encounters with. He had light green eyes and a mop of dark hair on top his head. His skin was pretty tan, but not too much where it was very noticeable.

He scowled at her, and Hope remembered that he still disliked her from their last meeting.

Hope had broken his nose to say the least.

It wasn't really on purpose, but _man_ was it funny.

"What?" he asked gruffly, looking wayyyy too stiff.

Hope smiled sweetly at him, saying simply, "I'm hungry."

He smiled back at her but then suddenly pushed her off the cell bars, making her stumble back before regaining her footing. She saw him smiling at her still when she looked back up and she couldn't help the twinge of anger she felt at his smug expression.

"Sorry, kid," he replied. "Should've ate before you decided to get arrested."

Hope glared at him, and she could practically feel her ire growing at his still smug face. She wanted to punch that smug look off his face. He wasn't even a bit fazed at her glare either, which she found almost impossible. Anytime she glared at someone, she knew that they could feel the amount of anger and darkness in her eyes. She knew that they felt immediate fear at what she could do, because she always, _always,_ surprised them. She did the unexpected, and sometimes, that hurt the person standing across from her.

But she could not do anything while she was in this god forsaken cell where the cop in front of her stood there smiling like it was Christmas morning.

But then, Hope heard as someone started heading their way, and she peered over to see another cop walking down the hall. She didn't recognized this one, but it seemed that Max did.

"Sheriff Briggs," he stated, standing straight for his commander.

The Sheriff nodded his head at him. "Max," he greeted, coming to stand in front of her cell as well. She suddenly perked up when she heard the sound of keys jiggling out of pocket. Her eyes immedtely found that the Sheriff was coming toward her cell with the keys and she came forward a bit.

"What are you doing?" Max asked, looking between the Sheriff and Hope, who shrugged at him with a small smile on her face. Did Darrin already come to bail her out?

"Someone bailed her out," the Sheriff told him, echoing her thoughts, but Hope couldn't help but frown. Darrin didn't have enough money for her bail yet. It probably would've taken at least a couple of days before he could actually bail her out, which meant that somebody else did.

Max didn't say anything at the authoritative tone in the Sheriff's voice. Hope heard as the cell lock clicked open and she walked out, the Sheriff grabbing her arm in an iron grip.

But, of course, she had to do something about Max.

She used her other arm that the Sheriff wasn't using to swing around and punch Max's face, hearing the beautiful sound of his nose breaking. Blood blossomed on his nose as the Sheriff pulled her laughing body away from the poor cop, his frown evident on his face.

Hope couldn't help but laugh. She actually _did_ punch the smug look off his face. She mentally patted herself on the back.

The Sheriff led her to the place where they had confiscated her stuff, where she put her hoodie back on with quick haste, covering her loose, white shirt that was way too dirty for public. Even though her hoodie had a few holes in it, at least it hid the dirt from someone's eyes. She has a reputation to uphold as well, so she couldn't be looking like a bum.

He pushed her forward roughly and Hope had the feeling that he didn't like the fact that she broke Max's nose _again._ And this time it was actually on purpose.

She waved goodbye to the Sheriff as she exited the police station to see a man in a suit waiting for her.

Her steps faltered a bit when she remembered that this was the same guy that had been staring at her when she left the store a little bit ago. Why was _he_ , of all people here? And why the hell would he bail her out?

Of course, there was the possibility that he had a job for her, but her clients weren't usually so...well-dressed.

And it ruffled her feathers a bit knowing that he wasn't from the south side of Chicago like herself. Nobody had such nice clothing where she came from, so it was pretty obvious that he wasn't from around there.

"Hello Hope," he said politely, and Hope put her defenses up quickly, making sure that if this guy was at all dangerous, she would be at least a little ready to fight or flight.

"Hello strange man in a suit," Hope replied with a smirk forming on her face at her own joke.

He chuckled at her as she approached him, tilting her head a bit.

"Well as much as I love this little meeting," Hope said, gesturing between the two of them. "Why, exactly, did you bail me out of the slammer?"

The man looked at her for a long moment, and Hope desperately wished for mind reading powers. His face was completely blank, no show of emotion anywhere, and Hope silently praised him for his ability.

"Why do you think I bailed you out?" he asked, tilting his head curiously.

Hope held his gaze for a long time before shrugging. "Don't know. Maybe a job? Maybe a grudge? All I know is that you want something from me."

The man looked a bit taken aback by her answer, but otherwise, remained calm and collected.

"I'm Elijah," the man introduced himself as, holding out a hand. "Elijah Mikaelson."

His last name sparked something in Hope's memory, but she ignored it, cautiously taking the man's hand. "Hope Nelson. Though, I assume you already knew that."

A corner of Elijah's mouth quirked up. "Yes. Yes I did," he replied.

"So, Elijah Mikaelson," Hope said, stressing his name. "What do you wanna do now?"

He didn't even hesitate when he answered her, "Join me for dinner."

Hope looked at him strangely. She just met this guy, and he wants to take her to dinner?

Of course, not in an attractive way.

Hope could immediately tell that he wanted to speak with her in a semi-private space, yet still public enough not to raise her alarm. A dinner was the perfect space.

She sighed. "I can guess that you're paying?" she asked.

He smiled. Like, _actually_ , smiled. She guessed that he didn't smile much by the small amount of wrinkles his face sometimes showed.

"Yes," he said. She shrugged. Why not? It was getting pretty dark out and she was hungry, even if she was all the time. And free food sounded pretty good.

If Darrin was here, he would be yelling at her to decline his offer. It's not every day that a strange man bails her out of jail to ask her for dinner. She had no idea what he was capable of.

But she loved taking risks if you haven't noticed.

"Okay," she said. "Lead the way."

He smiled about before walking toward a _very_ nice car in the parking lot. Hope tried not to gape.

His sleek black cadillac was beautiful. Hope daydreamed about these kind of cars that she might've gotten for her 16th birthday that recently passed. Of course, those were all just dreams. She hadn't even _seen_ a car like this outside billboards and magazines. And now she was about to sit in it.

Elijah seemed to smirk a bit at her wide eyes, but there was a strange hint of sadness in his dark eyes.

Elijah opened the passenger door for her and she nodded awkwardly at him before she slid into the seat. She wasn't used to such chivalry.

The car ride was painfully silent, the only sound being the slight singing of the radio. Hope didn't listen to the radio, since her foster family didn't have one. She didn't even have her own phone. How sad was that for a 16 year old girl?

But she had always managed. Sometimes she'd use Darrin's shitty flip phone so that she could contact some people that she needed to talk to. But that was about all the contact she had with technology. Her family didn't have a TV, there was a single car in the driveway that didn't even run, they couldn't afford any kind of phone besides the house one that was connected to the wall. She was completely shielded from those kind of devices.

But she made it work. She played the cards that she was given.

Soon, Hope noticed that they had entered the nicer part of Chicago, with the gleaming skyscrapers and the nicely dressed people walking around. Now _this_ is where Hope imagined this Elijah guy to be living at. He fit in perfectly.

They pulled up to a nice restaurant, though Hope didn't really know what it was called.

She wasn't great with reading alright!

Ever since she was little, she had trouble with it. It's not like she couldn't read, the foster system made sure that she could, she just couldn't read very _well_.

Most people in the system said that she had dyslexia, which basically meant that some letters looked like others. She always got her "v's" and "w's" mixed up. Not to mention her "b's" and "d's."

It was a tough situation, but just like everything else, she made it work.

The restaurant was nice outside, but it was even nicer inside. The lights were a lit dim for the ambiance and the ceiling had a lot of exposed beams that contrasted nicely with the lighter walls.

Hope didn't want to, but she felt very out of place in her loose hoodie and ripped jeans when this place was obviously fit for better clothing choices.

"Table for two please," Elijah spoke with the hostess, who smiled and began leading them to a table.

It was a table in the corner, which felt appropriate with their predicament and the fact that Hope didn't even know his guy that very well. It defiantly felt like he wanted her for a job, but she could always be wrong.

Hope sat down and took the menu that the hostess had handed to her, listening distantly as they girl said that the waitress would be with them soon.

Hope was a bit busy gawking at the menu. She had never seen so much food in front of her in her life.

But she had the problem of not being able to read the stuff on it.

Elijah was across from her and looking over his own menu politely. But, it seemed that he knew what he wanted quickly because he put it down and looked over at her.

Hope placed her own menu down as well, wanting to understand who the hell this guy was.

"Okay, so can we skip the politeness and get to the reason that you bailed me out?" Hope asked, looking at him cautiously.

He sighed and leaned back a bit, looking at Hope with a blank expression. Hope cursed his ability to conceal his emotions.

"How long have you been in the foster system?"

Hope was, obviously, taken aback by his sudden question. She normally didn't get asked that specific question, and when she did, she didn't find that the person asked her so straightforward like Elijah just did.

"Um," Hope said, still a bit weirded out with the change of topic. "Like my whole life. Why?"

"Did you ever wonder where your parents were?" he asked, setting his elbows on the table now.

Hope furrowed her eyebrows but answered anyway. "Yea, I guess- what does this have to do with you?"

She looked at him, _really_ looked at him, and saw that he was being very careful with how he was going along in this conversation.

"Listen," Hope said, feeling frustrated. "I have no idea why you wanted to meet with me or whatever, but I'm getting really annoyed with this guessing game-"

Hope stood up, ready to get out of there, when he gripped her wrist tightly, as if he was afraid that she would leave.

"Do not leave," Elijah said, looking a bit desperate. "Please."

Hope looked at him for a long moment, noticing that he was truly frightened that she would leave.

She sighed and sat back down, settling in her chair once again.

"Okay," Hope said. "Who are you? Really?"

Elijah sighed as he released her, looking conflicted.

"Please keep an open mind, Hope," he told her, making her even more nervous.

She nodded, her gaze intense.

Just as Elijah was about to speak, a girl showed up, looking way too perky.

"Hello, how are you?" she asked. "I'm Jacklyn and I'll be your waitress this evening."

Elijah nodded toward the girl, his attention diverted and Hope silently screamed. She was so close and this girl just had to show up and-

"Do you know what you want?" Elijah asked her.

Hope looked down at the menu, not understand what most of it was saying, the letters mixing themselves up. She simply pointed to a random meal, which the waitress wrote down. She noticed Elijah watching her do so with a strange look in his eyes as the girl collected their menus.

"Okay," Hope said. "Spill."

Elijah looked a bit uncomfortable but sighed. "I know your biological family," he finally said.

Hope expected a lot of things, but _that_ was not one of them. At first, she didn't believe him, but when she saw just how serious he looked, without any kind of joke on his face, she actually thought about it. Was it true? Did he know her family? If that _was_ true, then why was he here? Did he want her to meet them or something?

"What?" Hope breathed, obviously confused.

Elijah nodded his head. "Yes, I know your parents, because your father is my brother."

Hope's blue eyes widened at him. "So...Does that mean that you're like...my uncle?"

Elijah nodded and Hope blinked, trying to get ahold of her emotions. For _years_ she had wished that her parents didn't just give her up, that there was an actual reason. That they would come back for her.

That she wasn't like all the other kids.

But, like most kids, she lost hope, which was ironic given her name. But it was true. After you reach a certain age, parents don't want to adopt you. Which means that you'll never had a family.

It was a tough thing to comprehend.

"Why...Why are you here _now_?" She asked a bit quietly, heating the small amount of vulnerability in her voice.

Elijah looked at her sympathetically. "Hope, you have to understand," he started, looking at her earnestly. "There are things that you don't know. There was a reason that you were put in the foster system-"

"Why?" Hope said, getting a bit angry. "What was the reason?"

Elijah remained silent, looking, once again, conflicted with how he should answer.

Hope shook her head before bending closer to Elijah, her eyes blazing. "So, you mean to tell me that there is a reason I was put through hell? Wanting a family but knowing that they didn't want me?"

"Hope-"

She cut him off, standing up. "Stay away from me, alright?" She began backing up, seeing Elijah's eyes follow her every movement. "You did it well enough for sixteen years."

She turned her back on her "uncle," hating that he actually had _excuses_ for giving her up. The fact that he thought she would just jump into his arms with a smile on her face was absurd. She had a life, as horrible as it was, and she wasn't just going to give that up for a bunch of family members that didn't even want her.

She exited the restaurant, looking around and wondering how the hell she would get back home. She sighed, knowing that she didn't have any money on her for a taxi and knowing that she didn't have any form of teleportation other than that.

So, she started walking back to her neighborhood.

The people on the street gave her strange looks, no doubt about the fact that she looked homeless at such a young age. Not only that, but they were dressed up while she was simply wearing her dark jacket and ripped jeans. Of course, it wouldn't be that out of place if you didn't notice how dirty and rough she looked.

The walk took a while, and by the time she had made it back to her shitty neighborhood, it was pretty dark outside.

Hope jumped at the sudden sound of a gunshot, but otherwise, continued walking. Those sounds were a normal thing in her neighborhood.

She decided just to head to Darrin's house. No doubt he would be wondering what happened to her after the cops chased her down.

It didn't take much longer after that. And Hope got a nice surprise when she was passing by a dark alley.

"Lynx!" She whisper-shouted, bending down to pet the beige cat at her feet. In turn, the feline purred against her leg before jumping into Hope's arms, who continued walking down the street.

"Hey girl," Hope said as she pet the cat, hearing the animal's stomach growl. "I know, Lynx. I'm hungry too."

She hadn't stayed at the restaurant long enough for the food to be ready, and she was regretting the decision a bit, knowing that she would probably go to bed hungry now.

As she reached Darrin's small house, she went around the side of it to his window, peering through and spotting him on his bed. She knocked on the gate surrounding his window a few times until she caught his attention.

He hurried over to the window and opened it for her, allowing her and Lynx to slip into his room.

Darrin's room wasn't that unique. He had a small twin bed, despite his long legs that slid off of it, and a small bedside table next to it. In another corner was his closet with all his clothes and next to it was a CD player. He only had a few CDs but they were enough. It was all he really had for entertainment.

The small bedside table was currently holding the drugs that he sold to get any kind of money he could.

"What're you doing here?" Darrin asked, seeing Hope sit on his bed and release Lynx so that she could wander around. "I heard that you got arrested."

He was speaking lowly considering that his older sister was home. And Jasmine hated Hope with a burning passion.

Hope nodded her head, her elbows resting on her knees. "Yea, I did," she answered. "But someone bailed me out before you did."

His eyebrows raised as he came to sit next to her, the bed so low to the ground that he looked almost folded in half. "Did someone need something from you in return?"

She shrugged, seeing as you could take her situation with Elijah in that manner.

He must've sensed her bad mood because he bumped her shoulder with his own. "Hey," he said. "What happened? Who bailed you out?"

Hope took a small breath, readying herself, before she spoke. "My uncle did."

To say Darrin was shocked was an understatement. His jaw literally fell open for a moment before he regained his composure.

"Well, that's..." He wandered off his statement, knowing Hope's stand on her biological family.

"It's terrible, that's what it is," Hope said, her anger boiling over the top and her voice threatening to get louder as she paced across Darrin's room. "I mean, they can't just walk back into my life after _16 years!_ They made their decision about me the _second_ that they put me into the foster system. They can't take that back now!"

"Yea..." Darrin said, standing up as well. "But Hope, maybe their trying to make amends or something."

"Well, I don't forgive them," Hope said stubbornly, sitting back down as her emotions went back and forth from memories of terrible foster parents. "I will _never_ forgive them."

Darrin stayed silent. Lynx must've sensed Hope's turmoil, because she returned back to her and began purring against her side. Hope scratched between the cat's ears as the feline settled next to her side.

"Well, you can stay here for the night," Darrin said. "I'll try to get you something from dinner if I can find something. Lynx too."

Hope nodded gratefully. "Thanks D."

He nodded back as they settled into a comfortable silence.

 **HM**

Elijah cursed himself for the terrible dinner with Hope. The betrayal in her eyes reminded him so much of Klaus that it was frightening. Not only that, but she hated anything that had to do with her actual family.

Because he couldn't get much information out of Hope herself, Elijah had to find it elsewhere, such as the foster system's files.

What he found shocked him a bit.

In all of her 16 years, Hope had been through 25 homes, jumping from one to another as she got more and more rebellious against authority. She didn't do well with controlling parents, and she blocked herself off from the people who actually wanted to get to know her, making them feel like she wasn't grateful. In the beginning, it wasn't that bad, but as she got older, she was lucky to be in the same house for a week.

She had been in Chicago for about 5 years, but her homes changed rapidly. Mostly, she remained on the south side of Chicago, which she strangely felt safer at. She had confessed to a social worker once that she didn't like the people who seemed to want her, because she knew that they were lying.

Elijah knew about the two arrests she had gotten, but there were also a lot of vandalizing problems with her. She simply loved to "express herself," as she put it.

He couldn't help but think of Klaus when he read that. Already, as much as Hope didn't want it, she was connected to Klaus at a very high level.

Her best friend was Darrin Jones, a 16 year old boy that she had met when she had just moved to Chicago. Ever since then, no matter where she moved, they've been friends.

Elijah wanted to know more about this Darrin kid, but he couldn't find much when he was searching through _Hope's_ file, which made sense.

Though, when he had finished, he understood why Hope was so stubborn with staying out of her real family's life. She believed that they had abandoned her, left her as somebody else's problem because they didn't want her.

She wouldn't forgive them as long as she believed that.

Which meant that Elijah had to figure out a way to make her see their reasoning.

Just as he was entering his hotel room, his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID before answering.

"Hello brother," he greeted.

 _"Hello Elijah,"_ Klaus replied a bit impatiently. _"Did you figure out if you've found my daughter yet?"_

Elijah smiled a bit at his brother's obvious hope in his voice, wanting it to stay there. "Yes," he replied. "I believe I have found her, but I think that it will be harder than we though to get her to New Orleans."

 _"What do you mean?"_ Klaus asked, sounding frustrated.

"Well brother," Elijah began. "Hope has built somewhat of a life here in Chicago, and it's going to take a lot more... _persuasion_ to make her even think of joining us in New Orleans."

Klaus was silent for a long moment before speaking again. _"Elijah, what are you saying?"_

Elijah rolled his eyes at his brother. "Would you like to join me in Chicago, Niklaus?"

 **Okay you guys, there it is!**

 **I know it wasn't much, but I would LOVE some reviews and maybe a few suggestions about what you want to see next in this story!**

 **Questions of the chapter: What do you guys think of Hope's reaction to Elijah? How do you think Klaus will react when he sees for himself the life Hope has created? And what, especially, do you think will happen when Hope meets her father?**

 **Please leave your answers to these questions and other comments in the reviews so I know how I'm doing with this story so far!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	3. Revenge

**Thank you all** ** _sooooooooooo_** **much for the** ** _amazing_** **reviews! The amount of feedback this story has gotten is insane, and I'm really happy you all like it! And because you all like it so much, I'm making the next chapter! I hope you all continue to like it!**

Hope groaned.

Darrin, standing above her, laughed. "Come on Hope," he said in-between his chuckles. "We gotta go to school."

"Why?" Hope whined, holding Lynx closer. After eating a few leftovers last night that Darrin had given her, she fell asleep, barely remembering that she had school the next day. The cat didn't pay any attention to Darrin and Hope's bickering, slimply purring against Hope's side.

"'Cause we've already skipped like two months and it's only been a few months into the school year," Darrin said.

Hope groaned again, keeping her eyes closed as she moved her precious cat a bit to the side. "I hate when you're right."

Darrin laughed again as Hope stood up, squinting against the morning light coming in through Darrin's window. She looked down at herself, wondering if she could just wear the same thing she was wearing yesterday. She didn't but have many clothes in the first place and she didn't really feel like going to her house to get some clean ones.

So, she shrugged and threw her hair up into a messy ponytail, her dark hair all over her pale-ish skin.

"Okay," Hope said as she headed toward the window, not wanting to accidentally run into Darrin's sister, who, like she said earlier, hates Hope with a passion. "I'll meet you in the front."

Darrin nodded as Hope picked Lynx up, carrying the warm cat outside, where she was confronted with the chilly Chicago air.

Lynx blinked her eyes lazily opened and Hope scratched between the cat's ears as she set her on the ground. "Hey, Lynx," she said softly. "Time to get out of Darrin's house. Don't get into any trouble, alright?"

If it was possible, Lynx rolled her eyes, which made Hope laugh. That cat had more of a reputation than Hope for trouble, which was near impossible.

But, as Hope walked around the house, Lynx disappeared into an alley still shrouded from the morning light.

Hope only had to wait a few moments until Darrin walked out, wearing his own black hoodie with dark jeans. His chocolate skin made his appearance look nicer than Hope, along with his light eyes.

Hope, on the other hand, had her terrible ripped jeans that she's been wearing, her loose white shirt under her black hoodie, and now her hair was still all over the place in waves that couldn't be tamed. Her pale skin made her look a bit sickly, especially since she didn't own any makeup to cover it up.

"You ready?" Darrin asked her, and she nodded before they both started walking down the street without any kind of backpack.

Because of her dyslexia, Hope didn't do very well in school. For a long time, she tried. She completely and utterly tried, but after she heard one of her teachers call her stupid, she gave up. She patted herself on the back for having even one C in a class. She usually had straight F's.

The school wasn't very far, so Darrin and Hope got there right as the first bell rang, just on time.

The district that the school was placed in was pretty bad, which meant that all the students that went there were also pretty bad. Not a lot of kids were even in the few honors classes they had.

Both Hope and Darrin were placed in the regular classes.

She breezed through her first few classes, disrupting the class by talking without preamble, not paying attention at all to what the teacher was saying. At first, the teachers scolded her over and over for it, but by now, they knew it was pretty useless. They knew that Hope didn't really care about the grades she was given, neither did her foster parents.

Before she knew it, she was going to lunch while Darrin continued onto his next class, their school having a separate lunch system.

This was probably the only time that Hope had truly to herself. Darrin always wanted to stay close to her to make sure that she didn't do anything stupid which, honestly, saved her skin a lot more times than she could count.

But now, Hope was on her own schedule.

She slipped past the lunch lines, having no money to pay for the food and having too much pride to ask for the free lunch program that her school barely provided.

She was heading out the school and towards the back of it, seeing the outside walls graffitied with all different kinds of signatures and sayings. Hope spotted one of her own works and smiled as she passed it, walking through the high grass.

"Hey, Hope!" said a voice up ahead. Hope looked up to see a guy with dark skin leaning against the school building, smoking something from his fingertips. "Over here!"

Hope smiled and jogged over, seeing that Mac was already rolling her a joint of her own.

Mac Barnes was the druggie of the school. He knew absolutely everything about everyone that concerned drugs. Even Darrin, considering that he just started getting into the business.

Mac had dark skin and dark eyes that were hazy with the drugs he was smoking. By the smell, Hope guessed that it was weed, and when she took a puff, it confirmed her statement.

Darrin didn't know hat Hope did this every lunch. Despite selling drugs, he didn't appreciate people who took them. He didn't _respect_ them, would probably be a better term. He thought they were lowlifes, and Darrin was a bright kid. He didn't want him or Hope to ever become like that.

Which is why it would be best for Darrin to never figure this out about her schedule.

Mac was pretty tall, even compared to Hope with her long legs, so when she went to lean against the building next to him, he was still about a head taller than her.

"What's up, Mac?" Hope asked to be polite, but also cause she was a little curious on what he's been up to recently.

"Nothing much," he said in the stoned voice, obviously high. "Doing a little of this, little of that, little of everything."

Hope chuckled as she took another puff from her joint, already feeling a bit of the buzz kick in, which she was grateful for. With all this stress from her uncle suddenly showing up in her life, she desperately needed a break.

"Yea, I know how you feel," Hope responded. "I got arrested this last weekend."

"Again?" Mac asked and Hope laughed at the look on his face.

"Yea, again," she simply replied, knowing that Mac wasn't the one to pry into another person's life.

They took their time, and Hope didn't even move when the bell rang for her to go to class, not feeling the urge to go to school anymore. Mac was playing some rap music from his shitty phone that made the buzz that much more enjoyable.

But then, of course, someone had to end that moment.

"Hey, Hope Nelson!" said a voice and Hope turned her head to look over at the direction her name was called from, slipping the weed that Mac had just handed her into her pocket.

Hope saw Franki, Kevin, and Peter heading toward her. Of course, Franki was leading them.

Their little group was known as the bullies, if you could even call them that. They simply liked to stir shit up and cause a whole lot a drama. A lot of times, Hope was victim to this drama, but she was good at brushing it all off, busy with finding money instead of school rumors.

Franki had light hair and dark eyes, his skin pale but still pretty tan from his dad's side. Kevin and Peter were almost exact copies of each other, them being twins and all. They both had light eyes and tan skin, their hair dark.

"Whadda want, Franki?" Hope asked, knowing that this conversation wasn't going to go very well.

Franki shrugged as he stopped in front of her and Mac, the druggie currently stuffing his stuff into his pockets as well. "Nothing," Franki replied. "I was just gonna ask ya something."

Hope waited for a while before she got impatient. "Well, are you gonna stand in front of my like a little _bitch_ all day or are you gonna ask my the god damned question?"

Kevin and Peter looked at Franki for his reaction, which was quite funny. His face lost its casual smile, and grew red a bit in anger. It was at this time that Hope noticed Mac walking away. She couldn't blame the guy. Lord knows what Franki would do at this point.

"It's about Sascha," was all Franki said, and suddenly, Hope's blood ran cold and she saw his hand in his pocket, obviously wrapped around a gun.

You see, Sascha was Franki's cousin that came out to Chicago to pay a visit, and it just so happened that she wandered into a pretty bad gang fight that Hope had started. Long story short, Sascha got shot and died that night before the ambulance was able to arrive. And because of her part in the fight, Franki blamed Hope.

She had almost forgot about all that with everything going on in her life at the moment, with her arrest and her uncle and stuff. But now that she remembered, she assumed that all three guys had guns and were planning to kill her.

So she made a split-second decision.

Her fist swung out, watching as it collided with Franki's cheek, throwing him off guard with the sudden movement. By the time he looked up, she was already running.

She heard the three of them shout out as she turned the corner, barely missing a bullet. She didn't slow down as she started making possible escape routes in her mind. There weren't many that she could use that Franki didn't already know about. But there _was_ an alley up ahead where at least Hope could possibly lose him.

As she passed the school's gates and into the street, she almost got ran over.

She placed her hands on the hood of the car as the person stopped, her feet stumbling backwards so that she didn't get hit or anything. But, as she realized that her hands were on a _very_ expensive car, she looked up, confused.

That confusion instantly turned to shock and...well, more confusion. There was her uncle in his nice car that almost flattened her in the street. He was obviously confused to see her running into the middle of the road also, as did his companion.

The guy had curly, dark blonde hair and bright blue eyes. For a moment as she met those blue eyes, time froze. It was strange, as if there was something Hope was missing.

But before she could dwell too much on it, her body instinctively ducked as a gunshot ran out from the school. The bullet just barely missed her, ricocheting off the road.

 _That_ pushed the adrenaline back into her body and she took off again toward her original route. She heard more gunshots and students screaming behind her as she turned the corner into the alleyway, suddenly coming to halt not 10 feet later.

It was a dead end.

God! How could she be so stupid as to accidentally lead Franki and his crew into a dead end where she had no form of protection on her. Not even a knife!

She heard footsteps and whirled around, seeing Franki and the twins having their guns drawn and locked onto her.

She threw her hands into the air, wondering how the hell she could get out of this situation alive.

"Hey, Franki," Hope said with a small smile on her face, noticing how his angry expression didn't loosen up at all. "You can't... You can't really blame me for Sascha's death can you?"

"Hell yea, I can," Franki replied, a bruise forming on the side of his face from her punch.

"Well..." Hope said, trying to stall. "I wasn't really the one that shot her..."

"Might as well be," Franki said, his eyes blazing. "You started that fight and she got caught in the crossfire. You started it, now I'm gonna end it."

Hope's heart stilled, but it seemed that her mouth didn't wanna stop talking. "I have one problem with that, though," she said.

"And what is that?" He asked.

Hope noticed that both Kevin and Peter had their guns at their side, not even being held in both hands, which meant that their reaction time wouldn't be fast enough.

"Well," Hope said, her own eyes blazing. "I don't think I want it to end."

Before Franki could process her words, she grabbed onto the barrel of the gun, easily slipping it out of Franki's grasp and hitting the handle into his head, hearing a nice grunt come from him before she tripped him, making him fall to the ground.

Kevin and Peter raised their guns, but Hope already had it pointed at them. They hesitated, as Hope knew they would.

"Drop them," Hope grit out, her shoulder suddenly hurting a bit, but she ignored it, focusing all her strength onto the guys in front of her.

But they didn't, so Hope moved the direction of the gun to Franki's head. The two of them worshipped the ground that Franki walked on, so she wasn't surprised when a small flash of fear crept onto their faces. Hope spoke again through the pain. "Drop them, or I kill him," she said.

Finally, they yielded, setting the guns carefully on the ground before holding both their hands up in a surrender sign. But Hope wasn't done, she nodded toward the guns again. "Kick them away," she demanded, Franki looking up at her with a bit of fear now that the tables had switched on him.

The brothers did as they were told and Hope nodded. She hit the handle of the gun in to Franki's head again before quickly unloading the bullets, hearing them clink on the ground below her.

"Fun doing business with you, boys," Hope said as she dropped the rest of the gun onto the floor, walking past them and back into the street in front of the school, which now looked abandoned from the sound of gunshots.

Hope decided that it was probably best to start heading home, considering that she hadn't seen her foster parents in a few days and they might get suspicious. Her being gone for a few days was normal, but usually, she needed clothing of some sort sooner or later.

Her shoulder hurt with each step, but she ignored it, telling herself that she would look at it when she got home. She didn't need to take longer than normal.

Just as she turned a corner, a hand came down on her shoulder and Hope freaked.

She whirled around and went to punch the guy, when they suddenly caught her wrist. When she realized who was in front of her, she stepped away.

"What the hell, dude?" Hope asked, her heart rate very fast with the adrenaline from Franki's encounter to the surprise of her uncle suddenly sneaking up on her. "You can't just do that to people!"

Elijah seemed to be amused by this, looking as nice as ever in his pressed suit with the man from his car standing just next to him. Hope gave the stranger a sideways glance before looking back at Elijah.

"My apologies," Elijah responded, as elegant as ever.

Hope scoffed as she shook her head. "Whatever," she said, turning to continue on her way.

But her uncle was a persistent one. He grabbed her wrist tightly, making her spin back toward him. Hope didn't expect him to be so strong, which made her tense a bit at his touch. "Hope, please," he said. "Give me a minute to explain-"

"You already did," Hope hissed, struggling against his grip, her shoulder going through agony with every movement. "And I told you, I didn't wanna hear anymore of your excuses."

"Well then perhaps we could simply talk," the man beside Elijah spoke up, and Hope guessed he was trying to make the situation better.

Hope hesitated at the drasitc change of subject and Elijah took this as advantage. "Yes, we could go to dinner, since we couldn't finish our last one," he said.

Hope did find the sound of food appealing, and with her shoulder screaming at her to get out of this awkward position that Elijah's grip on her wrist was putting her through, Hope nodded, tearing her arm away. "Fine," she huffed.

Elijah furrowed his eyebrows though, pressing his hand gently on the shoulder that was currently putting her through hell. His fingers came back red with her blood.

"Hope?" Elijah asked with concern as Hope looked over her shoulder, taking her black hoodie off quickly to see the damage. It wasn't much, but with her white shirt and all the blood, it looked a lot worse.

"Hope-" Elijah started again but she cut him off.

"Relax," she said, pressing her hand to the wound to get the bleeding to stop. A bullet had apparently just grazed her shoulder, making a slightly deep cut. It wasn't anything worse than she's had before though. "It was just a graze. Let's just get on with this dinner thing or whatever you wanna call it."

Both Elijah and the stranger were left speechless at her calm composure at just getting shot at but, nonetheless, started steering her to the car that had almost run her over a few moments ago. She slipped her hoodie back on, making sure not to lean against the seat in the car for fear of getting blood on the nice leather.

It was like deja vu. Except now, Hope was in the back seat, the blonde stranger currently in the passenger seat as Elijah headed to a very small restaurant that barely had any customers, which seemed perfect for him. They were, obviously, back in the nicer part of Chicago, which meant that the two men fit right in with their clean and nice clothing.

Hope got out of the car to see that the small restaurant was serving Italian, and Hope was slightly glad that she agreed to this weird dinner thing.

Almost right after they sat down, a waitress came to take their orders. Elijah was going to ask for more time to look over the menu, but Hope said it was fine, pointing to a random picture in the menu that looked appealing. She didn't know what was in it, but it looked good. Dyslexia, remember?

After the waitress left, a weird silence fell over the tree, and Hope felt a bit awkward with the blonde guys's eyes studying her every move.

"So," Hope broke the silence. "What do you wanna talk about?"

Elijah was going to open his mouth, but the stranger beat him to it. The guy leaned forward, his blue eyes searching her own. "Well, I'm a bit curious about what happened at the school, sweetheart."

"Niklaus," Elijah reprimanded.

"Oh, Elijah. You know you were wondering the same thing," Niklaus said, smiling at Elijah.

"It's fine," Hope practically sighed to Elijah, feeling tired over the day's events. She turned to this Niklaus guy to explain the situation. "Basically, this guy blamed me for his cousin's death, and he wanted payback."

Niklaus narrowed his eyes a bit as he asked. "Was it?" Hope must've looked confused because he spoke again. "Was it your fault?"

"Hell no," Hope scoffed. "He's just being a pussy because his poor little cousin wandered into a gang fight that I _sorta_ started."

Niklaus looked greatly amused by her language, while Elijah just looked disappointed. Hope rolled her eyes at this look just as the food came. Hope's mouth was practically watering at her food. She couldn't even get his much food in a _month!_ And people were eating it as a _meal?_

Elijah thanked the waitress as Hope quickly dug into her food, fighting the urge to moan at the taste. She saw Niklaus smiling at her actions, though his smile seemed a bit sad, as Elijah's usually did. She didn't even care that she was supposed to hate her uncle right now. All she cared about was the food in front of her.

After a moment, Hope looked up, just to see the two gentlemen before her staring at her. She then realized that she must look like a mess with how she was eating, but she just shrugged and continued.

"So, Hope," Elijah began after the awkward moment. "How was your school day?"

Hope looked up at him with an eyebrow raised as she finished her bite, taking a napkin and wiping her face quickly with it. "Really?" She asked when she had finished doing that. "We're on to generic questions that parents ask their children? How ironic," she said sarcastically.

Niklaus barked out a laugh at her statement, chuckling under Elijah's annoyed stare. "Yes, well I do not seem to have anything else to ask you about, seeing as you don't want to know anything about your family."

Hope rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "Fine," she said. "School was like it always was: annoying and long."

"Why do you think that about school?" Niklaus asked, his head tilted a bit. "I would've assumed that you could find a distraction from everyday life there?"

Hope looked at him strangely before she suddenly started chuckling, shaking her head at his words. When she looked up at him, his eyes were confused so she sighed. "You aren't from around here, are you?"

He didn't have to answer for her to know the truth.

"Look," Hope said, setting her elbows on the table, her meal only half eaten yet she was completely full. "Here on the south side of Chicago...school is the least of our priorities. We stay alive. That's what we worry about, not grades or homework or any other kind of bullshit that school gives us."

When it seemed that neither of them were getting it, she spoke again. "We're in a war. We walk outside, not knowing if we'll get shot in the street. I mean, I've seen it happen to people I've known, so it wouldn't be that surprising to police, right?"

Hope shook her head, trying to get the anger at the subject off of her. She hated the fact that the police didn't see what was really going on, but at the same time, she loved it. It gave her more freedom, yet it gave her friends unsolved deaths. It was a bittersweet thing.

"And what about you?" Hope asked, pointing to Niklaus. "Who are you?"

They both seemed to tense, which immediately caught Hope's attention. They were keeping something from her.

She looked between the two as Elijah tried to come up with a way to explain this guy's reason for being there.

Finally, Niklaus just sighed, exasperated at waiting for Elijah. He held his hand out to Hope. "Niklaus Mikaelson," he greeted, his face dead serious. "Your father."

Hope froze, looking at the distinctions between the two and cursing herself for not realizing the resemblance earlier. It was obvious. They had the same sort of facial structures and eye shape. It wouldn't be that obvious for other people, but Hope prided herself on making such distinctions.

But now, she really wished that she had smoked just a little bit more weed with Mac, because then she could possibly keep her cool instead of completely freezing up. But what could she say?

She had just met her father.

And her anger was reaching a boiling point once again.

 **HM**

Klaus watched carefully as Hope froze from his greeting.

From what he had seen today, he wanted to take Hope out of Chicago as quickly as he could and to New Orleans where she belonged. He hated how calm she was about people shooting at her, as if she experienced it on a daily basis. He hated that she didn't want anything to do with her biological family because she believed they had given her up.

But, Elijah had told him ahead of time that Hope found this dump of a city like her home. And with her easy composure of handling the group of boys shooting at her, Klaus could only assume that Elijjah had been right.

But that still didn't mean he liked it.

Hell, Hayley was running his ear off every day to ask if they had found Hope. He understood her urgency, but he needed to explain things to Hope before he could take her to New Orleans. It was obvious that she didn't really know about the supernatural, so it would be a rollercoaster to force that onto her without her previously knowing about it.

But Klaus was redirected to the teenager sitting across from him. Her face was turning red and Klaus only had a moment to prepare before she exploded.

 **Alright guys, there it is!**

 **I know that this was more of a filler chapter, but I wanted to get Klaus and Hope's meeting down a bit. I know it isn't much, but there will be more Klaus and Hope time next chapter!**

 **Questions of the chapter: What did you guys think about Hope's school life? How do you think Klaus and the rest of the Mikaelsons would react to this? And what do you want to happen between Hope and Klaus in the next chapter?**

 **Please answer these questions and comment any kind of suggestions for the storyline in the reviews and I will love you forever!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	4. It's a Deal

**Wow guys! Thank you all sooo much for this amazing feedback! I've been trying to get this update in soon, and I really hope you like where it goes!**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

Hope was seeing red as she looked at her father, who was sitting across from her at the tiny Italian restaurant.

The blonde man was waiting patiently for her to yell, to scream, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Instead, she did the unexpected.

She moved quicker than he had expected, her hand swinging out and slapping him across the face.

It was dead silent, Hope fuming with anger as her father's face turned slightly red from the impact. Elijah was tense and watching the two of them carefully as Klaus turned his head back toward her, his eyes just as dangerously blue as her own.

"Dick," Hope bit out through her teeth, which were bared.

Before he could say anything to match his raised eyebrows, Hope turned and stormed out of the resturaunt, hearing Elijah behind her call her name.

Her heart was beating quickly, anxiety coursing through her veins at the prospect of meeting her father. She had dreamed of this moment, but it felt more like a nightmare.

She walked briskly through the crowds of people, hearing both of her newly found family members following after her quickly.

Her hands were shaking, trembling to the rapid beats of her heart. She couldn't deal with this. She just couldn't. Not today, not ever.

She pulled out the joint of weed she had gotten from Mac and looked around at the people around her, her blue eyes flickering this way and that until she found what she was looking for.

She bumped into a man, muttering a few apologies as she walked into an alleyway, needing to get out of the crowds which made her body heat up too much.

She lit the joint with the lighter she had snagged from the guy's pocket, taking a large puff that calmed her nerves just a little bit. It might've only been a smidge, but it was enough.

Hope sighed when she heard two sets of footsteps behind her.

"Hope," Elijah said, calling her attention.

"What!" Hope said, smoking spilling out of her mouth as she held the joint between two of her fingers. " _What_ do you want?"

Elijah eyed her warily as her father came up behind him, staring at Hope as well.

"What is that?" Elijah asked, gesturing to the joint between her fingers.

Hope looked at it as well before chuckling. "Oh this?" she asked. When Elijah nodded she simply shrugged. "Just something to take the edge off."

They both looked at her disapprovingly, but she didn't care. She never did. And now that her father was in her life, she was beginning to feel the things she had pushed away for _years_. So much desperation and anger and hate. Everything she didn't want to feel was coming back to bite her in the ass.

"Hope, just listen," Elijah started but Hope stopped him.

"I _have_ listened," Hope said, her temper getting the better of her."I listened to you trying to make excuses for what you put me through. I listened and I told you what I thought about it a-and you bring _him_ here?!" She pointed to Klaus, who was standing back for once.

Elijah's eyes turned sympathetic, but she didn't want his pity. "Hope, please-"

"No," Hope said, glaring at the both of them. She hadn't felt this much anger in a very, _very,_ long time, and it was getting the absolute better of her. Her body was burning, as if a fire was coursing through her cells. Her hands continued to shake as she fuitlessly tried to calm herself down with a joint of weed.

She went to turn back around as Niklaus began walking toward her. She just wanted to leave.

"Hope-" her father tried to reason, but she whirled around, pushing him away. Surprisingly, he actually stumbled back quite a few steps as her anger overtook her.

" _I said no_ ," she growled, her eyes burning.

Both of then stared at her, shocked at something she couldn't see, but she didn't care.

"Hope, you need to calm down," Elijah said carefully, watching her as if she was a wild animal.

Hope stared at him for a long time before turning away, clutching her burning eyes tight as she took another puff of the weed between her fingers. Slowly, inch by inch, her temper receded.

It took about 3 or 4 minutes before she had completely calmed down thanks to the drug in her hand and steady breathing. All through this, Elijah and Niklaus had remained silent, giving her space.

She sighed once she had calmed down, turning back toward the two men.

"I...I'm sorry," she spoke, her blue eyes troubled. "But I just... can't be here."

Elijah and Niklaus watched her go, and while Klaus wanted to go after her, Elijah held him back, knowing that Hope needed a moment to herself.

Hope's body felt strange, as if she didn't fit inside of her own skin. It made her itch, made her want to explode, but she was unable to. She wanted to scream, but in the middle of the nicer side of Chicago, Hope didn't want to draw too much attention to herself.

She didn't know where to go. She had no idea where Darrin was since they got separated at school after Franki started firing his gun. She didn't know anybody else that she trusted enough to go to them.

She was completely and utterly alone.

Hope shook off the feeling as she crossed the street, heading to her most recent foster home.

She was staying with a rather large family at the moment. The head of the family was her foster father who was barely at the house to actually know that Hope lived there. John Nelson worked almost all day and night, trying to get money in a place where there weren't many openings. He was tall, with dark skin that his whole family sported.

His wife, Susan Nelson, was a housewife that stayed home with her mom. She hated Hope. Absolutely hated her, and the black woman didn't even try to hide it. She straight out told Hope that the only reason she was staying in their house was because they needed the extra money to feed their three children.

All of their kids were young, the oldest being only 8 years old. His name was Conner Nelson, and he was the cutest kid ever. He looked up to Hope as if she was his real sister, and it made Hope smile when Susan was being especially vindictive.

The middle child was Susan's only daughter, Payton Nelson. She always wore pigtails and was always excited to go to Kindergarten classes. Hope found her pleasant, but sometimes, Payton took after Susan and called Hope rude names.

And the last child was a boy barely a year old. When Susan had gotten her son, she knew that they wouldn't have enough money to feed them all, which is when Hope came into the picture.

Susan was always busy with the baby, Hunter Nelson. And when she wasn't, Susan's mom, Emily, was busy with him. Hope was barely noticed by her foster grandmother, and she would like to keep it that way.

Hope briskly walked through the cold air to her foster home, seeing it come into view. Hope really wished that Lynx would appear, but it seemed that fate would rather have her alone at the moment.

Hope opened the door, signaling her appearance as she slipped off her still bloody hoodie, making it obvious that she was hurt with the blood staining her white shirt.

"John?" a voice called from the tiny kitchen. "Is that you?"

Hope made her way to the kitchen, her hoodie in her arms. "No," she responded, leaning against the wall to see her foster mother running around the kitchen with a crying Hunter in her arms. "It's just me."

Susan gave her the evil eye but it seemed that she was desperate because she sighed and approached Hope. "Here," she said, handing Hunter to Hope's arms. "I need to make dinner and Emily is running an errand with Conner and Payton."

Hope shrugged as she travelled to her tiny room. Everything in the house was tiny. _Especially_ the single bathroom for 7 people.

Hope opened the door to the room, bouncing Hunter on her hip as she did. The room had probably the smallest bed possible and a side table that was falling apart. There was a tiny window made so that Hope could technically be living in an actual room when it was more of a closet than anything.

"Hey Hunter," Hope said softly, siting down on the bed with a sigh as she let Hunter sit across from her on the tiny blanket that he carried around everywhere. "I haven't seen you in a while, bud."

Hunter just gurgled happily, though he seemed curious about the blood staining her shirt. It was funny because not even Susan payed much attention to her shirt, considering the amount of times she's come home covered in blood.

Hope sighed but suddenly jumped when she heard a scratching at her tiny window. She looked over and was pleasantly surprised to see Lynx there, looking at Hope with her feline eyes.

Hope opened the window and brought Lynx inside, closing it just as quickly so that Hunter didn't get a chill from the air outside.

"Lynx," Hope started, looking at the baby who was completely focused on the cat in her arms. "You haven't had the pleasure of meeting little Hunter," she finished, sitting in her spot once again.

Lynx sniffed at Hunter but then quickly started purring against his side, making him giggle. Hope smiled sadly, wishing that she was as care free as him.

She thought back to when she had first gotten to Chicago, how she was the youngest in her foster home that was right across the street from Darrin. She remembered always being hungry and sneaking out to meet with Darrin to try to find scraps in the garbage. She was only 11 at the time.

Now, not much has changed. She still didn't get a lot of food, if any at all, and she still caused trouble with Darrin whenever she could. It was simply the same thing, but in a different home.

She smiled again when Hunter giggled loudly, smiling more than she had ever seen him do so. Hunter loved animals, but their family couldn't afford one, not with their money already being stretched thin. So, it made sense that Hunter would take a liking to Lynx.

But then, there was a loud noise as the front door was opened and closed once again, followed by a few crashes through the house. Lynx immediately freaked out and Hope opened the window again for the cat to escape. Lord knows what would happen if her foster family found her hoarding a cat.

Hope picked up Hunter and returned to the living room, where she found the cause of the loud noise.

John had returned home, drunk once again.

He was stumbling all over the room as Susan came up to Hope and took Hunter back, the dinner forgotten. John was angry when he was drunk, and Susan didn't want Hunter caught in the crossfire when John took out this anger on Hope.

" _You_!" John seethed, his dark eyes locked onto her.

"Me," Hope said calmly with a small smirk. She had gone through this enough times over the past year to know that it angered John even more when she was sarcastic, but she couldn't help it.

John stumbled toward her as Susan left the room to go put a crying Hunter in his crib, leaving Hope alone.

"You're the reason this family's falling apart," John slurred, making the words almost unintelligible. "You come in here, thinking that you have a place, but you don't. You're just a white bitch thinking that she's okay living in the south side of Chicago because she lives with a black family."

Hope stared at John's smug face for a long time before chuckling, shaking her head back and forth in a mocking way. Immediately, his smug grin fell and anger returned.

"That may be right, John," Hope said, coming closer as well as she watched his face contort with rage with each word she said. "But I think you got the last part wrong, because right now, you're acting like the typical white man who comes home drunk and angry. Such a pussy that you can't even beat your wife, but have to settle for the kid instead."

John snarled and swung toward her, but his movements were slow and Hope was excellent at fighting. She grabbed his clenched fist and snapped it back, hearing the beautiful sound of his wrist breaking. She heard him scream out and smiled.

Normally, Hope wouldn't be so forward with hurting John, but she was still pissed off about her father showing up to town. Not only that, but she's been beaten by foster father's before, and John was very low on the intimidation list. She didn't want to go through the show again tonight.

"Here's a tip for next time," Hope spoke intensely in his ear, hearing his grunts of pain in between his clenched teeth. "Dont make assumptions, because then I'll have to return the favor."

Hope released John, watching as he stumbled back, clutching his arm to his chest. Hope did quick work and went to her room, changing her outfit into a black t-shirt and some dark jeans, grabbing her dirty and bloodie hoodie because she loved it, so the conditions of the clothing didn't matter to her.

She threw her hair into a bun and exited the house, hearing John screaming at her to get out and never come back. She did not looking his way once as she left.

She felt a cold wind sweep through her neighborhood and pulled her hoodie closer to her body. She thought about going to Darrin's house when she remembered the date. It was him and his girlfriend's anniversary tonight, which basically meant that Hope might sleep in an alley somewhere tonight since she can't crash at Darrin's.

At least she got some food at that Italian restaurant.

She looked around, glad that she had brought her hoodie despite it being absolutely filthy. She found what she was looking for and turned off the main road.

There was an alley that Hope had credit for. She was known to make all of her deals there and if anyone wanted to find her, they'd just have to wait at the alley long enough. She had discovered the very small and private space when she was 11 and running from her very abusive foster mother. Usually she got beaten by the dad, but this time it was the mom and it made her very scared. After a while, she had learnt to dealt with it.

In fact, the alley was the place Hope had met Darrin.

 _Hope was 11 years old as she ran. She ran as fast as she could, going practically two streets over before she found a small alleyway that looked like a place nobody would find her. Thinking quickly, Hope ducked into the alleyway, shielding herself from the harsh winds outside._

 _She roughly wiped at the stray tears that had leaked from her eyes. She hated crying, but she didn't know what else to do when her foster mother had started insulting her and hitting her. She had gotten this treatment from men all the time, but she had always looked to woman for nurture. Today was the day that she realized how wrong she was about that._

 _Suddenly, a trash can at the mouth of the alley tipped over, revealing a boy about her age with chocolate skin and light brown eyes. Hope had jumped from the crash but quickly composed herself._

 _"Hello," the boy said softly, as if not wanting to scare her. He could easily see the tear streaks that had slid down her face but didn't comment on it._

 _"Hello," Hope said just as softly. It was silent for a long time before the boy moved, entering the alley even more and sitting next to her, their backs leaning against the brick wall behind them._

 _"I saw you running and I thought you could use a friend," he said simply, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Hope, even at such a young age, knew that it wasn't. People didn't like to do nice things unless it somehow benefitted them. Perhaps he wanted a friend as well?_

 _"Do you want to be my friend?" Hope asked bluntly, looking at the boy curiously._

 _He met her gaze and shrugged. "Sure," he said. "My name's Darrin. Darrin Jones."_

 _Hope smiled and nodded her head in a greeting. "Hope."_

Ever since then, the alley had become a regular meeting place for the two of them. But, sometimes Hope hid out here if she didn't want to be found, which was just like right now.

She sat down, her back against the wall, and ignored the pain in her shoulder from the action. She had almost forgotten about the slight graze from a bullet she had gotten from Franki with all of the drama her family brought.

She couldn't believe that she was actually saying that sentence.

She sighed and dug into her hoodie pocket, glad to find the lighter and the barely there joint still there. She had already smoked most of the weed, but there were a few more minutes of a buzz left in it, so she lit the joint with the stolen lighter.

She almost jumped out of her skin when a voice suddenly spoke.

"You know, smoking is very bad for you."

Hope looked over to see none other than her father strolling into the alley. Why was he always showing up?

She rolled her eyes before looking upwards. "Why do you hate me, God?"

Her father actually laughed as he came closer to her. Hope was in too much of a good position to move, and she didn't really have anywhere else to go, so she allowed him to come nearer.

Surprisingly, he actually came and sat down next to her, leaving enough room for her not to feel awkward though. She cast a sideways glance at him before taking a puff of the joint, sighing with relief.

Klaus watched her carefully, seeing none of the anger she had shown earlier in her gaze. It was gone. Perhaps now he could actually get a word in and speak to her.

"How are you so at ease with it?" He suddenly asked, making Hope look over at him fully to see him already staring at her. It was a bit unnerving to say the least.

"With what?" Hope asked, deciding to try to be civil. It didn't change anything between them, but Hope didn't want to put up another fight right now. Maybe tomorrow.

"With all of it," he said, gesturing outwards and Hope immediately knew what he meant. He was talking about her life, how she was so calm with getting shot at, how she was best friends with a drug dealer.

Hope shrugged. "It's just my life," she said easily, looking away from him to take another hit from the weed.

It was silent for a long time before he broke it once again. "What if it didn't have to be?" He asked quietly, and Hope looked back at him, seeing his blue eyes bore into her own very intensely.

She was silent for a long time, thinking. What if she didn't have to live in shitty houses all the time? What if she actually got dinner every night? What if she didn't have to make money by doing dirty jobs for other people?

She honestly couldn't imagine another life.

"It doesn't matter," Hope finally said, her gaze still locked onto his as if by another force. "I can't change it."

She saw as his face changed to frustration. "Yes, you can," he said, and Hope stared at him as he got to his feet. She could tell that he was getting a bit frustrated, but she had no idea at what.

Hope tilted her head and Klaus sighed, turning away before quickly turning back to her. "Give me a chance," he said. "Come to New Orleans with Elijah and me-"

"No way," Hope said immediately, getting to her feet as well so she didn't have to look up at him. Her face had gone hard. "No, alright? You don't get to just swoop into my life and suddenly be this knight in shinning armor-"

"I'm not trying to be and I'm not saying that," Klaus argued. "I'm just saying to give me a chance to at least _try_ and show you that what we did was for a reason."

Hope looked at him for a long time, and he decided to continue.

"Come to New Orleans with Elijah and me, stay for a month, and at the end of it, you can decide whether or not you stay or return here," he bargained, his blue eyes pleading with her to at least consider it. "If you return here, you'll never have to see me or the rest of your family again."

Hope wanted to deny the offer instantaneously, but she wasn't stupid to not think about it first.

Honestly, the deal would benefit Hope immensely. She'd have a place to sleep, food, and possibly a view on her biological family, but on the other hand, she could possibly fall for her family and not want to leave, and while that may sound fine, she wasn't as keen.

She didn't _want_ to forgive her family for what they did. She didn't _want_ to know why they gave her up. She didn't _want_ anything to do with them, but she couldn't deny the perks of this deal. And maybe she could add something to it.

"On one condition," Hope said sternly, her gaze like lasers burning into him.

Klaus raised and eyebrow, but didn't say anything, so Hope continued.

"I get to bring my friend and my cat with me," she said simply.

Klaus's eyebrow remained raised as he chuckled. "Done," he said, holding out a hand for her to take it.

She couldn't believe she was actually doing it, but she found herself grabbing ahold of her father's hand and shaking it.

"It's a deal."

 **Alright, here's the next update!**

 **Guys, I would LOVE some feedback on this chapter because I'm not sure on Hope and Klaus's deal and if it actually makes sense to the storyline! It would make my day if you could tell me your thoughts on this chapter because it will really help with the writing process.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	5. The Reveal

**Hey guys!**

 **I am SOOO excited about the feedback I have gotten on this story. You guys are awesome readers and I love the reviews you have all written. With that said, I really hope that you like this next chapter!**

Today was the day.

Hope had snuck back into her room the next morning, her anxiety running high on the fact that she was about to spend a month with her family.

A whole month.

She had to sneak back into her bedroom because John was still pissed off that she had broken his wrist. She just packed a small bag of the few essentials she had. Her hoodie if she wasn't already wearing it, a note that hadn't been opened in probably 8 years, and a silver necklace.

Don't ask.

She also was bringing the few pairs of clothes she had that she hadn't left at previous foster homes, which only consisted of a few ripped jeans, some plain or band shirts, and her black combat boots that she wore all the time. Those were the only shoes she really owned.

She had packed it into a backpack that was so torn that she had to stuff the necklace into her pocket so it didn't fall out. The last thing she wanted was to lose the necklace.

She was currently heading over to Darrin's house to tell him where they would be going. She was excited to see how he would react.

Darrin's home was alright. He wasn't in foster care or anything like that, but his family was pretty poor. Their family, mostly his mom, would be very happy for him to get out of town for a little while considering that Darrin was the youngest, which meant he was last to eat. She didn't want her son to starve, and she didn't want him to die out on the streets either. Even if the reprieve was only for a month.

Lynx was already in Hope's arms, having waited for her at her foster home since they couldn't hang out last night with all of the drama happening.

Her dark hair was up in messy ponytail, a few pieces falling in front of her blue eyes. She was wearing her dirty hoodie once again, a black shirt underneath that, the only pairs of black leggings she had, and her black combat boots. She didn't have any jewelry on, but she kept the necklace in her hoodie pocket because she didn't trust the backpack.

She reached Darrin's house quickly, going around the side to knock on his window. Her blue eyes scanned his room and saw that one of his arms was falling out from the blanket covering his body. She rolled her eyes before knocking again, this time louder.

It seemed that did the trick, because he started stirring before glancing her way, his dark eyes adjusting to the light before turning confused. But despite his confusion, he didn't hesitate to get up and open the window and the gate so that she and Lynx could enter.

"What are you doing here?" Darrin asked, still groggy from sleep.

Hope smirked at him. "What? You don't appreciate my company?"

Darrin snorted in response. He was wearing some grey sweats and no shirt or shoes. Hope wasn't that affected by it considering they were close, but she knew a lot of girls would swoon over the six pack.

Hope rolled her eyes, sitting on Darrin's tiny bed next to him. "I've got some news," she said excitedly.

He raised an eyebrow. "What is it now?" he asked, giving the backpack a look. He knew that she only ever used the backpack in important matters.

"How would you like to leave Chicago for a whole month?" Hope asked, seeing Darrin blink in surprise, interest, and suspicion.

"Why?" he asked, getting up from the bed and slipping on a white T-shirt. His dark hair was messy as he ran a hand threw it, folding his arms as he assessed her.

Hope shrugged, standing up as well. The backpack and Lynx remained on the bed. "My bio family wants me to take a trip to New Orleans for a month, but I convinced them to bring you and Lynx with us."

Darrin blinked a few more times before scowling. "Hope, I get that you don't want to go into meeting your family alone, but don't you think you should go by yourself?"

"No," Hope said immediately, shaking her head as she approached Darrin. "You're my best friend, and I'm gonna need you."

Darrin looked conflicted. "What about my own folks? What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Don't tell your dad anything," Hope answered simply. "Your mom will be thrilled for you to get outta here for a little while. Come on, Darrin!"

She was now whining.

"You can even bring Nicolette if you really want to," Hope tried to incorporate his girlfriend into the mix. "I can convince them."

"You won't have to," Darrin said a little bitterly. "She broke up with me last night."

Hope's eyebrows instinctively rose when she heard his. "On your anniversary?" she asked and saw as Darrin nodded. She scowled. "What a bitch."

Darrin chuckled. "Yea, it was harsh."

"But now you don't have to worry about leaving her behind for a while," Hope said, getting back to the point. "Please Darrin."

He was shocked, and she could see it. Hope never said please. Ever. It just wasn't in her vocabulary.

So now that she was saying it to him, he knew it was important to her for him to join.

Finally, he sighed. "I'll ask my mom," he said just before Hope smiled widely. "When do we leave?"

Hope looked at the clock in his room before answering. "In an hour."

Darrin looked taken aback before chuckling, leaving the room to ask his mom. Hope stayed in the room, sitting back down on he bed and petting Lynx happily. Everything was going as she wanted for once.

 **HM**

"What could you have been thinking, Niklaus?"

Elijah was currently scolding Klaus. On what, the hybrid had no idea because he did absolutely nothing wrong.

"What are you talking about, Elijah?" Klaus asked, standing up from the couch. They were in the hotel and Elijah hadn't gotten there till the morning, allowing Klaus to wait until the last minute to tell him about the deal he made with Hope. Klaus was wearing his usual, dark henley and jeans while Elijah was wearing one of his suits. "This could be what we've been waiting for," he finished.

Elijah shook his head at Klaus. "And what will we tell her when her mother looks only a few years older than herself?" he asked, bringing a problem to the forefront of Klaus's mind. "And what about the aunts and uncles the same age. She doesn't know about the supernatural yet, Niklaus-"

"Then let's explain it to her," Klaus replied, just wanting his daughter back.

"And what about the human, her friend?" Elijah asked.

"He'll know too," Klaus said, gesturing outwards in a " _whatever_ " action. "I just want Hope back."

Elijah's eyes softened at Klaus being so vulnerable. He sighed and approached his brother. "As do I," he said, placing a hand on Klaus's shoulder for comfort. "But there are precautions we have to take. Hope will be very overwhelmed if we push all of this on her at once."

Klaus was silent for a long time before nodding. "I know Elijah but..."

"I know," Elijah said before sighing heavily once again, walking past Klaus to stand in front of the window. "We have to tell her today. Before we leave."

Klaus stared at Elijah for a long moment. "And what if she decides not to come with us?"

Elijah shook his head. "If there's one thing I have found out about Hope, it's that she doesn't back out of anything," he turned back to his brother. "We'll see if that's a bad trait soon enough."

Klaus nodded before beginning to gather his things.

He wished that Hope would understand.

 **HM**

"Are you sure this is where they wanted to pick us up?" Darrin asked Hope from her side.

His mom had agreed happily, like Hope had guessed she would, and Darrin was slowly becoming excited with the idea of leaving as well. He wanted to get away from Chicago, and this was the easiest way to do so.

He had his own backpack around his shoulders, barely filled with anything, even if it was more than Hope's.

Hope rolled her eyes. They were at the alley that Klaus and Hope had made the deal. They decided to meet here to start going to New Orleans, and Hope knew that Klaus wouldn't back out of this. Not if he was trying to make amends like he said.

"He'll be here," Hope said to Darrin's question, hearing her own confidence in the words. Just as Darrin was about to respond, a familiar, black car pulled up and out came Elijah and Klaus, wearing serious but also kind of nervous expressions.

"You must be Darrin," Elijah greeted first, shaking Darrin's hand, who was a bit taken aback by the formality of her uncle. "I'm Elijah, Hope's uncle."

"And I'm Klaus," her father stepped in, nodding his head as he sent the young man a bitter smile. "Her father."

Darrin's eyebrows rose as he nodded to each of the two. "Nice to meet Hope's bio family," he said respectively.

Hope watched everything with a small smile playing on her lips. She could tell that Darrin was as weirded out by her family's young age as she was. Maybe it was just good looks.

"Are we ready?" she said, shaking out of her thoughts as she turned to the brothers.

They exchanged glances and immediately, Hope's eyes narrowed just the tiniest bit. "What is it, now?" she asked, looking between the two with Darrin. He was also confused by the suddenly tense atmosphere around the four of them. Five if you included Lynx who was at Hope's feet.

"Well, Hope," Elijah began slowly, trying to find words to explain what they were. "There are things you have to know before you meet the rest of your family."

"Like what?" Hope asked, her voice showing the obvious suspiciousness she was feeling.

Klaus rolled his eyes at his brother's open mouth that wasn't saying any words. He stepped forward, directing Hope and Darrin's gaze to himself.

"Do you believe in the supernatural?"

"Niklaus," Elijah reprimanded, but Klaus only shrugged.

"What, you mean like witches and magic and shit like that?" Darrin asked, repeating Hope's thoughts.

"Yes," Klaus said with a small smirk. "Like vampires and werewolves, even witches like you said."

Hope was confused. Her expression showed that. Her eyebrows were furrowed together and she was staring at Elijah and Klaus as if they were crazy.

"Why?" she asked. She wasn't saying whether she believed in it or not. She especially knew just how crazy things were in the shadows. Not to mention she's had a few encounters over the years that couldn't really be explained.

"Well, Hope-" Elijah tried again but Klaus, once again, decided to just be blunt with it.

"What he's trying to say is that Elijah's a vampire and I'm a hybrid," Klaus said, smirking a little. "Vampire and werewolf to be exact."

Hope was immediately going to argue when Klaus's eyes changed colors. They were no longer blue but bright orange, dark veins underneath his cheeks.

"Fuck," Darrin said uncermoniously, making Klaus's smirk grow a tiny bit wider.

But Hope remained silent, her face blank, as she stared at her father.

Darrin hadn't started running in the opposite direction because he had seen a lot in his short years. There wasn't much that could shock him and though this was pretty big, it wasn't enough to make him bolt. At least, not until Hope spoke up.

"Hope?" Elijah said quietly as Klaus's face returned to normal. "Do you understand what we're hinting at?"

Hope slowly nodded as Lynx began brushing against her legs in figure eights. "Aren't vampires dead?"

The two of them had expected many things from Hope, but that question was a surprise. She was calm, shockingly so. She wasn't freaking out or denying it at all. She wanted more information about it.

Klaus began chuckling. "Yes and well...it's a long story." he explained to her.

Hope's lips remained in a firm line until she smiled. "Well then it's good you have some time to explain," she told him.

Elijah and Klaus both raised an eyebrow at her. The way she spoke the sentence made it seem that she was giving them an order. Either way, Elijah told them that they would explain everything. Darrin was still a little wide eyed and disbelieving, but when he noticed Hope acting cool and casual, he changed his tactics. So what if the supernatural existed? It wasn't that far fetched when he thought about it.

But Hope had an inkling of this for a while. Ever since she was about 14.

 _Hope walked down the street, looking around cautiously._

 _The night was cold and dark as she slowly turned the corner, feeling as if eyes were following her. She looked around again, but still saw nobody. She tried to shake the thoughts away. Her head was messing with her._

 _She cut through another alley, and suddenly, she fell to her knees, feeling a horrendous pain flowing through her head._

 _In front of her was a man, possibly in his mid-thirties. He had pitch black hair and hazel eyes that were locked onto her writhing form. She didn't understand what was happening. The man was holding out a hand toward her, but wasn't touching her at all. Where was the pain coming from?_

 _Her thoughts were cut off when she felt another wave of agony flow through her._

 _"Hope," the man said with a wicked smile. "It's nice to meet you after all this time."_

 _Hope's fingers were buried in her hair, clutching tightly as if it could lessen the pain. This couldn't be happening. Why was this happening?_

 _Suddenly, a loud noise rang out and the pain disappeared. Hope looked up to see the man drop to the floor, a large red stain on his shirt growing bigger by each second. Hope looked up as she stumbled to her feet, seeing a dark skinned man standing there with a gun in his hand._

 _He was a cop._

 _"You okay, kid?" the man asked but before he could take a step forward, Hope turned around and bolted, wanting to forget the whole thing._

 _It was too strange for it to be true._

Now that Klaus and Elijah were explaining many things of the supernatural to both Hope and Darrin, she couldn't help but know that the situation so long ago was true. It _had_ been true, and it was freaking Hope out.

"So," Hope said in the backseat of the car. Elijah and Klaus had suggested they explain everything on the way to New Orleans. Hope had agreed, and listened as they explained Hayley, her mother, and her role in the whole thing. "My mother still looks, like, 19?"

"Yes," Klaus answered. Darrin was also freaking out, but he was also excited. He had always wanted something new to be discovered, and this was it.

"Huh," Darrin said, looking between Hope and her father. To Elijah and Klaus, he was taking it very well. Hope, on the other hand, hadn't said much when they told the story of Hayley's transition into a hybrid.

"Hope?" Elijah asked from the driver's seat, looking in the review mirror to catch her gaze.

She blinked, slightly shaking her head. "Uh, sorry," she said. "It's just...a lot."

"It's alright," Elijah assured her kindly. Hope saw Darrin looking at her with a question in his eyes, but she just shook her head. She honestly didn't want to tell _anybody_ about her previous brush with the supernatural.

But one thing was for certain, and that was that she completely believed that everything her uncle and father were telling her was the absolute truth.

Hope had always been able to tell when somebody was lying and she could see that neither of them were.

Which meant that she hadn't gone crazy when she was 14 years old. That man really had been a witch, or whatever. The only question Hope had about that entire situation was why the man came after _her_ in particular.

Hope leaned in between the two front seats, looking at both of the men. "Who are you? In the supernatural world."

Hope caught sight of Klaus's lips pulling up into a small smirk but neither of them answered her. Instead, Klaus said, "Why do you ask?"

Hope shrugged, but both of the Mikaelsons could see the intelligence in her eyes. Hope was smart, neither of them doubted that, but they just now noticed how much she caught onto. Nothing really got past her easily.

"Well," she said. "Seeing as all that stuff happened to you, specifically, I figured that you two might be a little more than the normal vampire."

Elijah and Klaus exchanged almost proud glances, and Hope was unnerved. She didn't like to make people proud. It was weird.

"You're right," Klaus said, surprising Hope as welll as Darrin. He didn't think Hope was right, but he should have. She was excellent at figuring things out. Always had been and probably always would be.

"We aren't the usual vampires," Elijah continued where his brother left off. Hope realized as well that they were pulling up to the airport. "We're called the Originals."

Hope and Darrin asked them multiple questions, but they denied them until they reached the plane. Unsurprising to Hope but very surprising to Darrin, they had their own jet to themselves. Hope allowed Lynx to wander around, but the cat soon came back to her to sit on her lap.

The jet was nice, and the two teenagers smirked at each other before raiding everything. They were, like always, starving.

Klaus and Elijah watched them as the plane took off, making the teens stumble a bit. But they managed to keep destroying the place in search for anything they could get their hands on.

The brothers tried not to become sad.

It was because of them, after all, that Hope had grown up this way. And though they could do nothing for her past now, it still hurt to know that it was their fault.

Klaus, especially, had a lot of guilt about this.

It had been his idea to temporarily place Hope into a foster home. He wouldn't have ever thought that she would get adopted so fast, seeing as it wasn't that long before they managed to defeat their enemies. Hayley was the most surprised one though.

She had grown up in foster care herself, and the thought that Hope was now going through the same thing had torn her apart for years. Elijah had managed to slightly calm her down, but Hayley was still grief stricken and drowned her sorrows in blood.

Now that they had found Hope, Hayley desperately wanted everything to go perfect for Hope. She knew from personal experience how familiar yet different it felt to change homes. Foster kids do it all the time, but also, every house was different in it's own way.

Klaus shook off the many thoughts circulating his head when Hope and Darrin sat down in two seats opposite the ones Klaus and Elijah were sitting in.

"So," Darrin said, taking the supernatural thing well. It actually surprised Klaus and Elijah how easily he went along with all of the things they were telling him. "Why do they call you the Originals?"

And then they started the whole story about how they were created a thousand years ago. Both of Hope and Darrin's jaws dropped at the age, and it made Hope a little weirded out. Her dad was literally _ancient_ , and her mom still had sex with him? She shrugged. She really didn't want to know the details about _that_.

Hope was starting to get a little bored though as she pet Lynx in her lap. The beige cat was purring softly, but it still didn't stop the slight anxiety going through Hope about the fact that she was on a plane.

She had never been on a plane before.

It was weird, but at the same time, it felt normal. She didn't know what it was, but something about the plane felt nice. The jet was smooth, so it wasn't that scary once they got past the taking off part.

Hope peered out the window, and her eyes widened. Quickly, she hit Darrin's arm and gestured him to look.

"Damn," he said and Hope couldn't help but agree. The whole city of New Orleans was right underneath them after the few hours of clouds.

It was beautiful, she couldn't deny that.

Hope was still petting Lynx to help out her anxiety, but it was still there.

She was about to meet her whole family. And not only that, but she was obligated to stay for a whole month.

Hope was having a few doubts on taking Klaus's deal.

But, she went along with everything. The plane landed, scaring Lynx a little bit with the roughness, but otherwise, she was fine.

Then, they gathered their things before stepping out into the city, where Elijah and Klaus led them to a place they called "the Abattoir."

Darrin and Hope exchanged an amused glance at the name but continued on. No coincidence at all that a bunch of vampires would stay at a place that is _literally_ the definition of a slaughterhouse.

But, they were approaching it quickly, and in no time at all, Klaus and Elijah gestured to a large building. The day was getting late from the long plane ride, but Hope could still see the place in perfect light.

It was huge.

There were a lot of balconies on the second floor and the brick made the whole thing charming. The place fit right in with all of the other New Orleans charm, and that made Hope a little happy.

The place was beautiful as well, that much was obvious. Hope tried not to smile. She didn't want to start getting sentimental here.

But it seemed that Klaus noticed her little slip up and smiled as well. Darrin was staring at the place in awe and Lynx was struggling in Hope's arms. The cat wanted to go explore, but first they had to find a room where Lynx would know to go back to. Hope really didn't want the cat to get lost.

"Here we are," Elijah said. "Home."

Hope nodded absentmindedly, looking at Darrin who was blinking up at everything as if he'd never seen stuff like his before. Hope guessed it was true, considering Darrin had lived his whole life on the south side of Chicago. It wasn't that much of a surprise that he was excited by a change of scenery.

And though Hope had lived in other places as well, she too was excited about New Orleans. There was just something in the air that sparked something inside of her.

For once in a very long time, Hope was beginning to feel hopeful.

Ironic, isn't it?

"Come on," Klaus said, leading them through the front door. "Let's meet the others."

And it was that moment that Hope pushed away that hopeful feeling inside her. She couldn't get wrapped up in the pretty lights here, because once the month was up, she would be heading back to her real home in Chicago.

And she wouldn't forget that it was _this_ family who had abandoned her the first time.

Maybe they should get a taste of what that feels like.

 **Alright guys! I know, I know, another cliffhanger! But I'm still not sure how Hope should react to the rest of her family. If you liked her reaction in this chapter or want something more aggressive, please tell me so that I can put it in the next update!**

 **So, please review and thanks for reading!**


	6. Silent Tears

**You guys have really been asking for me to update this story, so here I am!**

 **I hope you like it!**

Hope walked in casually, holding Lynx close to her chest.

The place was as rustic and nice on the inside as it was on the outside. There were even indoor balconies from the hallways connecting many of the rooms together. The courtyard in the middle was large as well, but Hope's blue eyes narrowed when she saw the group of people there.

There were three woman and two men standing there, obviously waiting for them to appear. The fact that they were all watching her made her even more anxious than she already was. She hated moving homes, simply because of that retched feeling of uncertainty in your gut. There was no way to get rid of it without sleeping at the house for at least one night.

Hope was still wearing her dark clothing: black leggings, black hoodie, and her black combat boots. Her dark hair was in a ponytail and a little messy given the fact that she had been in both a car and a plane that day. Her pale skin stood out against the dark clothing, and her bright eyes made the illusion even stranger.

A woman stepped forward, her mouth whispering a small word. If the room wasn't so quiet, Hope wouldn't have heard it.

"Hope."

Her name. The woman said her name with such love and adoration. By the looks of the woman, Hope tensed even more, guessing that she was Hayley.

Her mother had the same dark locks as she did, wearing light jeans and a green, long sleeved shirt. Her eyes were a pretty hazel, and she had nice cheekbones. She was clean, and she was beautiful.

She was the complete opposite of Hope.

The teenager froze mid-step, Darrin almost running into her. Hope's eyes were blank, leaving nobody to see what she was thinking as she stared at the woman. This woman, the mother that was absent all of her life, standing right before her. The woman that had died giving birth to Hope and then gave her away like she was trash.

Hope immedaitely had a disliking toward her.

She didn't even know the woman, and Hope knew it would take a long time until she opened up to her. Despite agreeing to this deal, Hope still didn't forgive her family for putting her through foster care.

Hope blinked, quickly returning back into her own head and raising an eyebrow. "I can safely assume you're Hayley?"

The woman blinked, possibly a little surprised by the hostility in Hope's voice, as was everybody else. Darrin scowled at her, pushing her shoulder slightly.

Hope looked over at Darrin, blue meeting chocolate. She glared, and they had their own little conversation through only facial expressions. The others were staring at the two of them in confusion until Hope sighed, rolling her eyes. She turned back to Hayley and spoke through gritted teeth.

"I'm so happy to meet you," she said tightly, practically feeling her ego against her teeth, begging to be released and say what she really wanted to say.

But Darrin was right to stop her. Although she would possibly never forgive Hayley, she shouldn't rip into her right now. They could throw the two of them, even Lynx, out into the streets if she didn't at least _try_ to play nicely.

Hayley blinked again, taken off guard. Seeing that she was a little speechless, Klaus stepped forward, gesturing to one of the men.

"Hope," he said, placing a hand on the blonde man's shoulder. "These are your uncles Finn and Kol, and those are your aunts, Freya and Rebekah."

Hope's eyes scanned over each person as her father introduced them. Finn had dark eyes and, like she mentioned earlier, blonde hair. His features were sharp, and if she passed him on the streets, she would assume he was a little too uptight. But, he had a polite smile on his face.

Kol, on he other hand, resembled more of Elijah's traits. He had dark hair and dark eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. At first glance, Hope immediately knew that she and Kol possibly were more alike than she and her own father. He had that look in his eyes that was often replicated in her own.

Freya was beautiful, like all the women there were. She had Finn's light hair but Klaus's light blue eyes. Her eyes were kind, and she looked nice enough. Hope, though, still didn't exactly trust her.

Then it was Rebekah. She looked like Freya in many ways, except her facial structure. Rebekah had more of a sharper face, and her eyebrows were set more deeply over her eyes instead of Freya's rounded ones. She was gorgeous, and she had a smile on her face as well.

Hope finished examining them and shrugged nonchalantly, even if her nerves were running high. "I'm Hope, obviously," she said.

Kol snorted at her introduction and she saw as he covered it up quickly before Hayley could send a glare his way.

"It's so nice to finally meet you," Freya said in a pretty voice. She had a strange accent, it wasn't quite British but it definitely wasn't American.

Hope raised an eyebrow, angry at just that one sentence but holding back the cruel words before they could escape. She simply nodded at Freya's words and Elijah, seeing that the room was getting a little awkward, gestured upstairs.

"Why don't you and Darrin go find a room upstairs?" he asked and the two teenagers nodded.

They took a few steps forward when Hope suddenly had a smirk on her face. She turned to Darrin and he met her gaze.

"Race ya."

Immedaitely after those two words were said, Hope pushed Darrin and ran up the stairs, running pretty quickly even with a cat in her arms. Darrin let out a shout of indignation at her push, but followed her anyway. The Mikaelsons looked at them with a bit of fondness, glad that Hope even had the ability to laugh considering her actions toward them all.

Hope ran down the hallway, hearing Darrin behind her. She decided that she had won when she opened a door and found an empty room.

"I win," she said to Darrin proudly, watching as he smiled at her through the heavy breathing. She walked into the room and threw her trash bag full of clothes and such onto the bed, letting Lynx jump to the floor from her arms.

Darrin leaned against the doorframe behind her, his backpack still around his shoulders as he tilted his head sadly.

Hope turned around and saw Darrin standing there with a small frown on his face. Her eyebrows furrowed together. "What?" she asked him.

He sighed and walked a few steps into her new room. "You could've been a little more nicer down there," he said softly.

Hope rolled her eyes, opening the backpack and stuffing her few clothes into the dresser. The room was nice, like the rest of the house. The four poster bed was stained lightly, an almost white color but not quite. The dresser and side tables were also that beige color, looking rustic as well. There were French doors leading out to a small balcony that overlooked the city. The walls were painted a dark lavender to contrast with the light furniture. The room was big, larger than any other room she had ever lived in. There was also a beautiful, connected bathroom, which surprised Hope even more.

"They still abandoned me, Darrin," Hope said, turning around to meet his gaze once again, blue meeting chocolate. "I'm not just going to hop into this life with open arms-"

"And I don't expect you to," Darrin interrupted her, coming to stand right in front of her. She had to tilt her head back just a little to meet his eyes. His hands wrapped around her arms softly, reassuringly. "But this is the one chance that you have with reconnecting with your biological family. A lot of people would kill for that chance."

Hope immedaitely felt guilty, because it was true. A lot of foster kids wished day and night to have just one minute with their real family. Some of their parents died, and the kids cried for weeks, possibly even months, when they had to go into foster care because of it. And here she was, given this chance on a silver platter and spitting on it.

She sighed. "Fine," she said to him. "I will _try_ to be a little nicer."

Darrin smiled with white teeth and nodded. "Okay," he said, traveling back to the doorway. "I'm gonna take the room across from here alright? If you need me, just go in there."

Hope's eyes furrowed together. "What will you be doing?"

"Sleeping," Darrin said with a smile, one hand on the doorknob of Hope's new room. "That plane took a lot of energy out of me."

Hope smiled back and nodded. "Alright," she said and watched as he shut the door behind him.

Hope was left alone in the room, the silence strange after the noise from her previous foster homes.

She had already unpacked all of her stuff, but she remembered something else. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the dirty letter and necklace, looking at them for a long moment before throwing them into the side table drawer. She pushed terrible thoughts out of her mind and slowly slipped onto the soft bed, running a hand over the grey comforter.

Lynx jumped onto the bed as well, curling against Hope's side and immedaitely purring. Hope smiled slightly and began running a hand through the cat's fur.

Hope was still processing everything that had happened in the past few days. If you told her a week ago that she would be living with her biological family, she would've scoffed in their face. And now, she was in New Orleans doing just that.

She couldn't believe it.

Hope let her hair down from her ponytail and then ran a hand through it. She didn't have anything to do, and it was getting dark outside, but she didn't want to go downstairs in case her family wanted to talk about feelings.

So, she slowly got to her feet, Lynx moving to rest on one of the pillows to substitute her leg. Hope reached the French doors and slowly opened them, feeling a slight breeze enter the room.

The minute that she heard the slight noise coming from the streets, she felt better. If she closed her eyes, she could just barely imagine the busy streets of Chicago.

The thing that was different between the two was that New Orleans had a more excited feel to the noise, like a celebration that never stopped. The air was buzzing with electricity as Hope stepped onto the balcony, the night now very dark.

She leaned against the railing and looked over at the streets. She had a perfect view of the front of the compound and she didn't mind it. If anything, Hope loved the view. She could see miles of lights, something that she never really saw on the south side of Chicago. There were people smiling and laughing on the streets, whether from alcohol or something else, and it made Hope smile slightly.

Suddenly, she heard a quiet knock from her bedroom door, and she turned. Hope's dark eyebrows furrowed together and she tilted her head. At previous foster homes, nobody had ever bothered to knock.

"Come in," she called out and the door immedaitely opened, revealing one of her aunts, Rebekah.

The woman was wearing jeans and a blue tank top that made her eyes pop out. A grey cardigan kept her from being cold even if vampires couldn't really feel it, and her blonde hair was down in loose curls that Hope had never been able to achieve.

"Hi," Rebekah said kindly, giving Hope a small smile as she slightly entered the room. Hope couldn't help but find her very nice, even if she really didn't want to think of her as that.

"Hey," Hope replied, coming into the room as well, leaving the balcony doors opened behind her. "What's up?"

Rebekah leaned against the door frame casually. "I was just going to inform you that dinner will be ready in a little bit."

Hope raised an eyebrow. "I thought vampires couldn't eat anything other than blood," she commented and Rebekah laughed in response.

"If we keep a balance in our intake of blood, then our body functions quite normally," she explained. "Do you like Italian?"

Hope blinked, her lips pursing in thought. Rebekah waited patiently, assuming that Hope might have a few more questions that she didn't manage to ask Nik.

After a moment, Hope sighed, needing to ask somebody the question. "Can I ask you something?" she said to Rebekah, who seemed to be taken aback by her sudden change of subject.

But, she quickly regained her composure. "Of course," she replied, standing up straight now.

"And just give it to me straight," Hope said, waiting until Rebekah nodded to continue. "What was the real reason that you all gave me up?"

Rebekah was, obviously, at a loss for words. It took her a moment to answer as her blue eyes blinked multiple times. "Well, the witches-"

"I heard of the witches," Hope interrupted, shaking her head. "And I get that you were trying to protect me, but why foster care? Why would you put me...through that?"

Hope cursed the small vulnerability that she heard in her own voice, and by the way Rebekah's eyes softened, she heard it as well. "Hope," Rebekah said softly, taking a small step forward so that there was only the bed separating them. "You have to understand that Nik and Hayley thought they were protecting you. The foster system often moves kids quickly, and nobody would've suspected us hiding you there for a little while. We didn't expect you to be taken so quickly..."

Hope nodded her head slowly, clenching her jaw. They had an obviously big reason as to why she was put into the foster system, but she couldn't let it go. She couldn't take away all of those years of pain just because they gave her an excuse, even if it was for her own safety. She would rather have been in danger than to suffer that emotional, mental, _and_ physical pain. She would've rather died.

"I'm not that hungry," Hope said suddenly, turning away from Rebekah and looking out the French doors once again.

"Hope-" Rebekah tried to say but the teenager cut her off.

"Please leave."

Those two words were stated with no emotion, and it slightly frightened Rebekah. Hope already despised this family because of being put into the foster care in the first place, but Rebekah hoped that they could somehow get on her soft side soon.

But, she couldn't do that without giving the girl some space. So, she walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

When Hope heard the click of the lock, she relaxed, her shoulders falling just slightly. But that didn't take away the anger that she still felt, that terrible vulnerability she still had. It was a terrible feeling and something that Hope hadn't felt for a long time.

Her eyes briefly looked over her shoulder toward the drawer, where she knew an older letter sat, waiting to be reopened after the 8 years it's been closed.

Hope shook her head, looking out at the city to take her mind off of the things that she was feeling. Every single emotion that she had pushed down for years were suddenly back and it was overwhelming her. And with the fact that Hope didn't have anymore weed on her, she needed a way to let out some steam. Either that or find some weed in New Orleans.

She would take either option.

Hope slowly wandered onto the balcony again and felt the nice breeze that came through. It was cold, but not too cold. There was a slight warmth in the air that Chicago never had during this time of the year.

Looking out at the city, Hope made a very sudden and irrational decision.

She went over to her ruined backpack and opened it up, seeing her few cans of spray paint that she had brought along for the ride.

Hope smiled. "Jackpot," she said before zipping the backpack up and swinging it onto her shoulders. She still had her shoes and hoodie on, so she was good to go.

She went to the balcony and looked down, seeing that there were places that she could place her hands and feet should she jump at the right place.

Only if she jumped at the right place.

Her blue eyes narrowed as she stared at the bricks, seeing the indentions as if they were made only for her to see. They were a little aways to her right, to the point where she would have to jump a little to reach them. The drop below wasn't that bad, she had done worse, but there was a strong possibility that she could break something if she didn't catch her grip on the bricks.

Hope shrugged. Why not?

She climbed over the balcony railing, her combat boots not making it any easier on her to stay steady. Her eyes were locked onto where she needed to jump, and she reminded herself briefly that she would have to be back home before they came up to get her. Rebekah would tell the others that she didn't want to eat but somebody would be bound to check on her after the meal was finished.

Hope took a deep breath before jumping, reaching out her pale hands and successfully grabbing onto the bricks that were jutted out just a little more than the normal ones.

Hanging there, Hope looked down and saw another few bricks to her right, facing the compound now instead of facing the streets. Knowing that she wouldn't get too hurt on this one, she made the jump a lot faster.

And the rest was a piece of cake. Hope landed onto the concrete and looked up at the balcony, which was about 20 feet up in the air. Hope smirked as she pulled the hoodie over her head, turning and easily blending into the shadows.

Her blue eyes examined he streets of New Orleans with curiosity, seeing many tourists taking pictures or residents showing the tourists around and explaining about the supernatural side of the city.

If only they knew.

But, Hope was on the lookout for something other than the tourist attractions. She was looking for a somewhat abandoned building, possibly one with vandalism already present.

It was not a shock that Hope liked to express herself through vandalism. Her school had seen her artworks, as had the police car that she had marked before destroying and getting herself thrown into jail. She didn't know exactly when she got into the spray paint, but she just did. It was like taking a fish to water; she loved it.

And not only that, but it was one of the easier things she had access to on the south side of Chicago. She couldn't exactly buy amazing paintbrushes and canvases as easily as she could get some spray paint. It just didn't work like that.

Hope suddenly faltered in her footsteps before a large smirk plastered her features. _Got cha_ , she thought before crossing the street and quickly slipping into an alley.

The building was obviously old, as were many in New Orleans, but it was also sentenced to be renovated soon if the notice on the front door wasn't any consolation. It would be the perfect place for another one of Hope's amazing artworks.

She planted her backpack on the ground before grabbing a grey spray paint can, popping the cap off before shaking it, her smile wider than ever as she contemplated what to paint.

She practically leaped up with excitement when she thought of her idea, but instead, she started spray painting on the worn, brick wall.

Her mind worked faster than her arms, but she made sure not to rush her work. Each stroke was practiced, calculated to perfection. Each spray of the paint was planned out beforehand.

Everything was precise.

Her bottom lip was in between her teeth as she moved quickly, using the three different colors she had: grey, black, and blue.

She easily made a picture that would stand out to someone walking down the street. The colors were bland, but the way that she blended the colors made it worth while. She had painted a face of a girl basically. Half of her face, the left side, was grey and the right was the black and blue. The right side had bruises across her cheek and one just under her eye, which had a small tear coming out. The other side was simple. There was no expression on that side. Her hair was black, and pieces of it drifted into her face, as if there was a wind coming from the left.

Hope stood back, nodding once and brushing a few strands out of her face. She smiled.

"Hey!"

Hope whirled around when she heard the shout coming from her right. She saw an old man, definitely Italian by the hair and the big stomach. His eyes were blazing, and it seemed that the building wasn't exactly abandoned after all.

Oops.

That small smile on her face turned into a smirk as she quickly gathered the spray paint cans into her backpack, zipping it up quickly and throwing it over her shoulder as she turned. She ran, hearing the man yell profanities after her.

The adrenaline raced through her veins and she almost felt like it was just another day. If it weren't for the differences in her surroundings, she'd have thought she was still in Chicago.

That made her heart a little bit lighter.

Any stress or frustration that she felt before was gone now. That's what painting did for her. It made her forget. She didn't need a drug or alcohol to do that, only some paint.

In any kind of form.

She slipped through people in the crowds, most of whom were celebrating wildly. They barely noticed her, and she was glad. Her feet were swift as she dodged decorations and beads being thrown into the air. If this was how it was like on a normal day, Hope would be surprised to see how it was on Mardi Gras.

In no time, she made it back to the compound, slipping through the front entryway and leaning against one of the walls. She took a moment to catch her breath before staring out into the crowds once again.

The man was gone, but she could see a few police officers checking out the area. The old guy ratted on her.

Before she could do anything, she jumped, whirling around when someone said her name.

"Hope?" Darrin asked, looking confused and disappointed at the same time. How he managed to do that, Hope could never figure out. "Really?"

She rolled her eyes before pushing past him, her hair down and in tangles around her face. "Relax," she said. "I didn't do anything _that_ bad."

She could hear him stomping after her, and she prepared herself for what would be yet another speech about responsibility and what was right and what wasn't, blah, blah, blah. She walked into the courtyard to see the table set and everyone sitting there. All of them looked up at her entry. Kol looked amused, like always. Klaus, Rebekah, and Finn looked confused, but they were slowly piecing everything together. Hayley and Elijah both looked disappointed, with their arms crossed over their chests. Freya just looked concerned.

Hope stopped, raising an eyebrow at everyone's expressions. After a moment of tense silence in the room, Hope spread out her arms wide, smirking again. "Who's first?"

From behind, Darrin shoved one of her arms harshly, making her stumble just a little. "Cut the bullshit, Hope," he said, surprising some of the others with his language.

Hope rolled her eyes again. "Relax," she repeated. "I already told you I didn't do anything that bad."

"You shouldn't be doing anything _at all_ ," he retorted and Hope realized just how angry he was. Her eyebrows furrowed together because, despite his disappointment most of the time, he never got too angry at her. Right now, he was furious.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked, her blue eyes examining him closely.

He shook his head. "I was willing to put up with this crap when we were in Chicago because of your past but not anymore," he said, making Hope slightly tense with the reminder of her past. He gestured to her family behind him. "You have a family now, Hope. You can't keep getting yourself arrested."

Hope scoffed. "Well, screw you too," she said, turning around and getting ready to go upstairs. Her family hadn't said anything during the conversation, knowing that they had no place in it. Not yet.

"Raven wouldn't have wanted this," Darrin said from behind her.

Hope froze.

She had just reached the staircase and was about to go upstairs when he spoke. Her muscles were tense, and her heart had stopped. _He didn't go there. Please tell me that he didn't go there,_ She thought.

"You know I'm right," he continued and Hope flinched.

She turned around quickly, her blue eyes blazing brighter than a fire. Her movements were deliberate as she stomped over to Darrin quickly.

He should've been more prepared, but he was moving too slowly. In one quick move, Hope's arm swung out and her fist hit Darrin right in the jaw, sending him to the floor despite the height difference between the two.

Her family, the ones that weren't standing already, stood up, ready to intervene should it be necessary. But Hope wasn't looking that way. Her gaze was trained on Darrin's form as he rubbed at his jaw, waiting until his dark eyes met her own.

Her teeth were clenched, but she managed to bite out the two words. " _Fuck. You._ "

She turned around before she did anymore damage and practically raced up the stairs, not even looking over at the family members who just witnessed the whole thing.

Elijah went over to Darrin and gave him some blood to heal, something that Darrin was really freaked out about. But, he drank the substance, wanting it over the broken jaw he just got. Hope may be a girl half the size of him, but she grew up in a place where you learnt how to punch someone.

She was an expert at it.

Hayley met Klaus's eyes briefly before she spoke, "I'm going to go talk to her."

"Hayley, are you sure?" Freya asked, meeting Hayley's eyes from where the hybrid had stopped at the staircase. "She may need a little space-"

"I've given her space, Freya," Hayley interrupted, and everyone could hear the small shake in her voice. "But she's still my daughter and...I have to try."

Freya was silent at that, taking a moment to nod her head.

Hayley nodded back before climbing the stairs once more, heading to Hope's room, almost afraid of what she would recieve from the girl.

Hayley had wanted to cry when she realized just how Hope had grown up. It was so similar to her own childhood, jumping from one foster home to the other, that Hayley hated it. She couldn't stand what she had done all those years ago. It was such a mistake.

And she would never be able to take that back.

Especially if Hope was as good at holding grudges as her father was.

She climbed the stairs quickly, easily getting to Hope's room but abruptly stopping at the door. Behind the wood, she could hear small sniffles. Hayley blinked, listening closer.

" _I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry_."

Hope's voice was quiet, almost silent, and Hayley was positive that she wouldn't have heard her is she didn't have her super hearing. The hybrid could hear the anguish in her daughter's voice and she wanted to enter the room, to take her into her arms.

But Hayley knew better. She knew that Hope wouldn't let her help, even if the teenager needed it. She was too prideful for that. She was also too closed off to even consider it.

So, with one last look at the closed door, Hayley backed away silently, leaving her daughter in tears.

 **Okay guys, there's the next chapter!**

 **I know this took literally forever but I had some family stuff I had to do with my grandmother in the hospital and all this stuff. I tried my hardest to update as soon as I could and I hope you guys enjoyed!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	7. Drugs

**Hey guys, I know that this took forever but I hope you might forgive me with this chapter!**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

The next few days were strange for Hope to say the least.

She could tell that everybody was walking on eggshells around her after her tantrum with Raven being brought up. They were acting very kind to her, and speaking in very soft tones, as if she would break the moment that they raised their voice.

Hope was getting fed up.

Not only that, but her father had given her a strange comment after he got back from doing something during the afternoon in the French Quarter. He looked to her for just a moment before saying, "I saw your artwork love."

That was it. Nothing more, nothing less, and it was confusing Hope to no end. She didn't do well when people commented on her artwork, because they were pieces of her. Nobody spoke of her artwork in Chicago because nobody cared enough to say anything, but this... This was new territory, and Hope was afraid that she would lose a lot by crossing the imaginary line drawn in the sand.

Not only that, but she grew up in the south side of Chicago for God's sake. They didn't have to act as if she would break, because she wouldn't. She wasn't built of porcelain, but a metal that nothing, not even them could break. At least, not yet.

But that's besides the point.

She didn't need them to be fragile around her, and it was making her angry that they thought that way. They thought that it only took a few cruel words from her best friend in order for her to fall apart, but that was a complete lie. She had survived from harsh words, stinging slaps, deafening gunshots. She had survived, and she would be dammed if the Mikaelson family, _her_ family, thought that this would be her breaking point.

She wasn't built to break.

The next few days also consisted of very strange things. Darrin had apologized to her, agreeing that she needed more time, but she found herself hesitating to forgive him. He had mentioned Raven, and he didn't even know her, only the things Hope had told him. That was crossing the line a little bit, and Hope needed more from him.

Not only that, but her aunt, Rebekah, had decided to take her shopping.

And when Hope asked for a price range, Rebekah had stated that there wasn't one.

Hope was a simple girl. She didn't need jewels or diamonds or pretty things. She had grown up being poor, and although it was obvious that Rebekah wanted more for her, she was content with simple things. She wasn't a princess, as much as her family wanted to think that, and she wasn't someone who deserved the jewels or nice things. She had killed, and hurt, and betrayed. She was flawed, and such a flawed person did not deserve the flawless diamonds Rebekah thrusted her way.

Much to her aunt's dismay, Hope had simply gotten a few new T-shirts, some jeans, shorts, and a pair of black, high top converse to join her black combat boots. Rebekah had managed to convince Hope to get a dress, but it was of simple caliber. It was a blue color that would, as Rebekah put it, "Make your eyes shine like the brightest of stars."

Yea, really.

Hope didn't comment on that statement, but she couldn't deny that the dress was probably one of the nicest things she owned. The dark blue made her pale skin contrast nicely, and it had a lacy, plunging back that showed off even more skin. The dress went about to her knees, and Hope had no doubt that she would probably end up wearing her new converse with them, considering that she had never even touched heels before.

Rebekah had tried to show Hope many earrings and such, but Hope declined. Her ears were pierced, one on her left ear and two on her right, simply because of a dare that one of her friends gave her, and she had three, cheap earrings to keep the holes from closing. They weren't the best, but she didn't need more. If she didn't need it, then why take it?

When she told Rebekah that, the blonde had gotten a very sad expression on her face, not replying to her words whatsoever and seeming to be deep in thought. Hope had tried to ignore the way her face fell, but it was obvious.

She wanted Hope to live as if they had never given her up in the first place.

She wanted Hope to easily accept diamonds from anybody, because that was how she grew up. She wanted Hope to love dressing up and putting on makeup and looking pretty. She wanted Hope to be the girl that Rebekah had in mind this entire time.

But Hope wasn't that girl.

Neither was she the girl who was completely innocent and didn't have any blood on her hands. Neither was she the girl who learned how to play a beautiful instrument like piano or violin. She was not that girl that everyone wanted her to be.

She was...well, Hope.

She was the girl with the ripped jeans and the bloody hoodie. She was the girl who vandalized property for art instead of painting on a canvas. She was the girl who didn't go to school whatsoever, and didn't try to learn anything in the horrible building. She was the girl who lived on blood and fear, and who had learned to disguise this fear as anger.

She was _that_ girl, not the pretty princess everyone had thought she'd be.

Then, Freya, her other aunt, had started asking Hope if she wanted to try and tap into her magic. Hope had, surprisingly, said sure. Why not?

It wasn't that she wanted to know more about her past or anything like that, but she remembered the anxiety, and the fear that she felt when she knew something had moved inside her veins. She remembered the uncertainty when she felt something, so powerful, and just out of reach. She wanted to know more about the supernatural part of herself.

But that also led to run-ins with her Uncle Kol.

Hope actually liked Kol. He didn't push her for things that she didn't want to say of her past. He respected her space, but still acted like someone that Hope would like. She loved to play pranks on his family members, and he couldn't deny the longing to hurt for pleasure once in a while. And although Hope was a little different than him, she was also very much alike that the two of them bonded over his lessons on controlling the bloodlust.

He had explained that, if Hope were to tap into her vampire side, then she would probably have a very strong bloodlust. Having to deal with this bloodlust more than the others for a thousand years, Kol knew a thing or two about staying in control. He told her all of the little things that she needed to focus on, like the color of a painting or a rock against a dam. Everything counted when it came to something such as bloodlust.

She hadn't spoken much with her other uncle, Finn, except for a few passing words, but he seemed nice enough. A little strange, but still, Hope could see that he cared for his family deep down, and that now included her. Even if he was quiet most of the time, Hope didn't need to hear him speak to know that he was content with her being there.

And then there was Elijah. He was quiet as well, but he had that look that made her think that he was reading her thoughts. His dark eyes would scan her form while she was in the kitchen or looking outside, and she knew that he was staring at her because his eyes felt like _lasers_. And he didn't speak when he stared, only stared. It bothered Hope at times, but she's gotten okay at ignoring him.

And then there was Hayley.

Now with Hayley, Hope had no other word to describe her except _hovering_. She constantly was around the corner, watching Hope and asking if she needed help making a meal or washing her clothes, which was definitely new territory for Hope. Despite the fact that the teenager was clueless with those things, she would rather be dead than get help for it. She was stubborn like that.

Only Hayley never seemed to get the hint. She would keep at it, trying to connect with her on some level, until Hope just snapped.

 _"_ Can you just backup?!" Hope yelled, turning to Hayley, who had been standing a few feet behind her and hovering there, once again, without saying anything. It had been really getting on Hope's nerves, and there was only so much that she could take. "Like seriously! What the hell is wrong with you?"

Hayley looked shocked at her outburst, but she recovered quickly, which Hope had to give her credit for. They were in the kitchen, and Hope had been making a simple sandwich when she finally yelled at Hayley for standing there like an actual mother.

"I just wanted-" Hayley started, but Hope was fed up with her. She knew that she was overreacting, but having a parent there all the time was discerning for her. She had never had that, and now that she did, she wanted it gone like it was the plague.

"What?" the teenager interrupted her, her blue eyes narrowed yet blazing like the fires of hell. "You just wanted to try and be a parent for once in your life? Well guess what, Hayley, I don't want you to be my parent! I don't want you to be my mother!"

At this point, Hayley's mouth had fallen open again and her eyes were slightly glistening with tears. Elijah and Klaus entered the kitchen, quickly followed by the rest of the family, even Darrin came into the kitchen to see what was going on. Hope didn't need to see her friend's face to know that it fell in disappointment.

"What the bloody hell is everyone screaming about?" Rebekah asked, looking between the mother and daughter.

Hayley looked incapable of saying anything, her eyes still locked onto Hope's blue ones, the half made sandwich on the counter forgotten. Hope scoffed, turning to the others in the room.

"Nothing," she spat out, walking briskly to the kitchen door, but unfortunately, she was cut off from her fast exit.

Elijah's grip was like iron, and Hope immedaitely began struggling against him. "Let go of me," she bit out, but she knew, deep down, that she would never escape his grip.

"Calm down," he spoke calmly, yet that only made Hope more furious. She didn't want to be there anymore, with her mother as a reminder of her fucked up past. She didn't want anything more from the Originals that she wanted nothing more to do with. In that moment, all she wanted to do was leave and never look back. She wanted everything concerning her family to be a dream.

"Hope!" her father shouted, and she turned to look his way, her eyes crazy. She was cornered, and she hated to be cornered. When she was cornered, she lashed out and somebody, whether it was one of them or herself, would get hurt.

His eyes were as calm as Elijah's, yet they were the same as her own, not the dark brown of Elijah's. Hope realized that she might be going crazy, like actually insane as her father spoke calmly at her. "Relax," he finished.

Hope clenched her jaw, her eyes still that blue fire, but she checked herself. She was being unreasonable, and reckless, but that was what she was good at.

"No," she shook her head, turning to Elijah and ripping her arm out of his hand. She was surprise that her arm didn't get torn out of its socket. "I'm not gonna calm down, alright."

"Hope-" Darrin tried, but Hope didn't want to be in that room any longer, and they were blocking the exit. She lashed out in the only way she knew how: words created out of pure anger.

"No, Darrin!" Hope screamed, her pale face getting red easily with her yelling as she pointed roughly at Hayley. "She thinks that just because I agreed to this stupid deal that she can act like my mother!"

"Hope, stop-" Darrin tried to put an end to the confrontation.

"I'm not gonna fucking stop, Darrin!" Hope screeched, glaring at her friend.

"Language, Hope," Elijah said loudly, loud enough that it was quiet for a moment. Hope stared at Elijah, more like glared at him, but it sure as hell didn't stop her.

She shook her head before scoffing. "You can't tell me what to do."

"You are in _our_ home, Hope," Elijah said, and she knew she was in for it now. "And you follow _our_ rules, got it?"

"And you think I'll actually listen to you?" Hope asked, taunting him further despite all the warnings going off. His siblings weren't stepping forward and getting involved, and Hope remembered that Elijah was the oldest for the longest time, even though he had two older siblings. "You didn't mean shit-"

"Language!" Elijah yelled now, but Hope continued on as if he hadn't said anything.

"-for 16 years!" she said, glaring. "You don't have any right to tell me what I can and can't do! And if the house is the problem, well then I'll just fucking leave!"

She blinked once, her eyes now burning intensely, and she could see Elijah stiffen slightly, but he didn't move. She scoffed again, shaking her head as she walked around the Mikaelson and exited the kitchen.

She was leaving, and that was the end of it. Screw the Mikaelsons and what they wanted her to be. Screw all of them!

She stomped up the stairs, the burning in her eyes slightly receding as she entered her room, seeing red. It had only been a few days, and she felt as if she was suffocating in the house.

She ran a hand through her dark hair, which was down, but she couldn't stop the anger, the fury. It was coursing through her veins and begging for her to do something, to hurt someone. She clenched her eyes shut, breathing heavily and trying to slow her heart rate down. She couldn't believe that she agreed to this. She couldn't believe that she actually expected something from her family before remembering that she was supposed to hate them forever. What the hell was she thinking!

She screamed in anger, grabbing the nearest thing to her, which happened to be a wooden side table, and threw it to the ground, seeing pleasure in the piece of furniture falling to the ground and breaking into pieces.

She was still breathing heavily when a voice spoke from across the bed.

"That was nice oak."

Hope whirled to see her father standing there, wearing an unreadable expression as he stared at her head on. She glared at him, rolling her eyes while she did so.

"Screw you," she bit out, going through one of the drawers of the dresser and taking out the clothing that she had brought from Chicago, completely ignoring the ones Rebekah had just gotten her. She wasn't going to take the goddamn clothes with her to remind her of what a mistake it was to actually start getting comfortable with the family she was supposed to hate. What the hell was she doing?!

"That's not a very nice thing to say, now is it?" he replied cheekily, but she didn't laugh, only sent a heated glare his way. She stuffed the clothing into the ruined backpack that was somehow still holding itself together, her jaw clenched tightly. She could feel his eyes on her form, and huffed in frustration, stopping her movement to look at him.

"What?" she asked, annoyed that he was just standing there and not saying anything. It was getting on her nerves.

He only shrugged, and Hope felt like she was going to explode. How did she survive this long without her anger eating her from the inside out?

Oh yea, drugs.

She really needed some more of those.

"Nothing," he said in response, his blue eyes meeting hers, still calm.

She rolled her identical blue eyes, scoffing at him as she crossed her arms. "If it was nothing, than you wouldn't even be in here," she reminded him, and saw as he smirked at her intelligence, once again being surprised by how her brain worked. "Just spit it out."

He paused for a long moment, and just as Hope was going to shake her head and continue packing her bag, his voice broke her away from that. She was actually surprised that he had spoken at all given the fact that it was only "nothing."

"Why were you so annoyed with Hayley?" he asked, and though it was a very simple question, Hope found it hard to answer. She knew what the truth was, but it was very different from what other people thought of her, including her father.

But, she was too frustrated and tired to lie at the moment, and so far, Klaus had actually annoyed her the less. She decided this was as good of payment as he could get for that.

"You wanna know the truth?" she asked him, seeing as he stepped forward slightly in interest, leaning against the dresser and standing only a few feet away from her now. "No lies. No cover up. Just the truth?"

He hesitated for a moment before nodding, and she sighed, her anger fading away as bitterness took over. She had an actual reason for the things she did, but usually, nobody knew these reasons except for her.

She held onto the backpack still, leaning against the dresser as well before looking up into his blue eyes. He was observing her closely, and Hope tried to brush it off as she spoke quickly. "I wasn't annoyed," she corrected his earlier assumption. "I was angry."

His eyebrows furrowed together and his head tilted, but he didn't say anything, so she simply continued.

"I'm always angry. But I had to remind myself to be angry to save the both of us some time," she told him, shrugging. "Soon enough, she'll become annoyed, or angry, or sad by my lack of love for her, so it's better just to speed up the process than to string her along."

He blinked, obviously not expecting that answer, yet at the same time, understood her reasoning behind her feelings. She had grown up in a life where her home, her family, were always temporary, and completely based on her behavior in the home. She believed that because nobody before the Mikaelsons have learned to love Hope that nobody really ever could. And with Hayley being her biological mother, Hope didn't want to become attached even more, still angry at them for what they had done to her. She didn't want to actually like Hayley, because then she would be heartbroken when Hayley eventually got rid of her.

Hope wouldn't be able to survive that like her previous families.

Klaus tilted his head, trying to keep his face blank of any emotions as he watched Hope return to packing up her clothing. He was quiet for a little bit before he finally gathered his thoughts and spoke them out loud.

"She may not seem like it," he started, seeing Hope halt her movements to hear his quiet voice. "But she is a good mother...Hayley. What she did...What _we_ did, all those years ago, was wrong, and we know that."

Hope stiffened, but continued to listen to her father's words, hearing him approach her from behind. She didn't move, barely even breathed as he spoke again.

"But instead of denying it all, she accepts that what she did was horrible," Klaus told her softly. He reached out and gently touched her shoulder, but she still flinched. He slowly turned her around so that he could see her face, even though her eyes were downcast. He continued though. "She's trying to make it up to you, but she doesn't know you at all. It's just as hard to see you as it is for you to see her."

At that, Hope scoffed. "Oh please-"

"I'm serious, Hope," Klaus cut her off, not wanting to be rude but needing to get this point across. Her blue eyes flickered up to meet his own, and he was once again surprised by the intensity of the blue. He frowned at her expression. "Hayley made a mistake a long time ago, and she admits to it, so try to understand from her point of view that she is trying to create a healthy relationship with you. Stop reminding yourself to be angry with her, with all of us, and just get to know her, would you?"

Hope's eyes had narrowed, the blue never breaking away from his own as she studied him. After a moment, she spoke. Her voice was quiet and soft, and Klaus wouldn't have heard it if he didn't have supernatural hearing. "Why are you telling me this?" she asked him.

He sighed, shaking his head. In all honesty, he had no idea why she was telling her this, but just as he was thinking that, something new came to mind.

"Because you deserve to be happy without feeling afraid to be hurt again," Klaus said, reading her easily. Her eyes slightly widened at his knowledge of her, and he gave a small smile to her in reassurance that he wouldn't tell anyone. "And Hayley would never dare to hurt you, even if you think otherwise."

Hope stayed silent, her eyes flickering to the floor. She sighed before looking back up, only to find that Klaus was gone without a trace. She ran a pale hand through her hair, now even more confused than before.

Her anger was natural, but she often used it to her advantage. She used it as a shield, something to push people away before she became to attached and eventually ruined whatever happiness she could find. Klaus had caught onto that only by the few words she had spoke to him, and she had to admit that he was very perceptive of what she was feeling.

She didn't know how to feel about the fact that he could read her so easily.

She ran a hand through her hair once more, though it was a less shaky movement than before. She closed her eyes, wishing with all her will that this was all just a dream, but she knew the truth. She knew that this, all of this drama and fear and family, was real, and right in front of her. She didn't know how to react, but that didn't mean that she could pretend all of this wasn't happening.

It was.

Hope sat down on the bed, her backpack hanging from her fingertips in between her legs. What was she supposed to do? Everything felt right, everything felt wrong. Everything was perfect, everything had fallen apart. Everything she knew about herself was true, everything that she was had been a lie.

She was the perfect oxymoron.

She bit her lip, becoming frustrated and even more angry, though at herself instead of at her family members. Maybe she could get out for a little bit...the day was young after all, the afternoon light streaming in through the windows. She wouldn't be in too much trouble considering that she couldn't do any trouble while in broad daylight. Not in an unfamiliar town.

But before she could stand up, a soft knock came from her bedroom door. She didn't even open her mouth before the door opened and Darrin slipped into the room, catching her gaze immediately.

He looked annoyed, but she could tell that he understood where she was coming from. He silently walked over to Hope and sat next to her on the bed, neither of them speaking for a long time.

"I know what you're gonna say," Hope finally broke the silence, her voice quiet and small. She heard him sigh and turned her head, her blue eyes looking at the side of his face. "You're disappointed, and annoyed."

He nodded his head, and her stomach dropped, her worst fears being confirmed. She knew that Darrin was frustrated with her, but for him to blatantly say that she was being unreasonable in a situation like this made her heart hurt.

"But..." he said, and her eyes flickered back up to see him staring at her, a soft expression on his face. "I get it, and I'm not gonna push you anymore, alright?"

Hope gave a small smile before it erupted into a full-blown grin. She threw her arms around him, bringing him into a hug. She felt him chuckle as his hands wrapped around her waist. They stayed like that for a moment before Hope suddenly realized what position they were in and pulled away quickly.

He gave her a soft smile, but the air was tense now with awkwardness.

"Okay, well now that that's out of the way," Hope said, standing up from the bed and turning to look at Darrin, throwing her backpack to the side as he looked up at her. She grimaced at him. "Could you cover for me if they ask where I am?"

Darrin rolled his eyes, but otherwise, didn't explode, so she took that as a good thing. "Where the hell are you going?" he asked her and she smirked, raising her eyebrows.

"Now, my dear friend," she said over-exaggeratedly. "If I told you, that would ruin all of the fun!"

Darrin couldn't help the small snort of amusement that escaped them, and that only made Hope's grin grow, knowing that he couldn't say no to her.

"Fine," he said, standing up as well so that he stood over her. "But, you gotta be back before dinner, or else I'm screwed." She could tell that he was being serious about his nervousness, considering that he would be left alone in a house full of vampires without the girl keeping him alive present. She would be nervous too.

"Don't worry, D," she said, already walking to the balcony doors, and readying herself to escape the suffocating compound. "I won't leave you to the wolves, I swear."

He nodded, waving her away. "Yea yea, now get out of here," he told her and she winked at him before jumping over the balcony railings and grabbing onto the brick quickly before she fell too far.

Easily, as if she'd done it all her life, she landed the second drop on her two feet, immediately standing up and disappearing into the crowds of New Orleans.

She was surprised by how easygoing everything felt like as she walked with the large crowd in the street. She had to admit that the fun parties and somewhat nice people made New Orleans a little more bearable.

But, Hope didn't feel entirely comfortable. She felt more like herself in the dangerous parts of the city, with crime and murders happening left and right. That was her life, and that was the part of New Orleans that she was walking to. She mentioned that she needed drugs, and she would get some.

She looked left and right, cutting through a long alleyway to walk even further into uncharted territory. Her blue eyes flickered over the people on the sidewalks, looking for a specific character. She skipped over the woman with a baby in a stroller, looked away from the man with the terrible comb-over, but suddenly stopped when she saw her.

She had a rocker style, her blonde hair messy and landing below her shoulder blades in day old curls. Her makeup was smudged a little near the eyes, but otherwise looked relatively okay. Her ripped jeans showed her pale skin and the fishnet leggings underneath them, but also went extremely well with her loose black tank top sporting some sort of band. Hope could see the lacy bra she wore in the space underneath her arms, and the girl's dark eyes scanned the streets, surprisingly not noticing Hope just yet.

Hope smirked.

Already knowing how she would handle the situation, Hope crossed the street when the girl was looking in the opposite direction, going to stand about two feet away from the blonde, leaning against the brick wall as well. She waited for a long moment, practically hearing the girl's heartbeat as Hope played with her nerves, already able to tell that she hadn't been in the drug selling business for a long time.

After a long moment, Hope let out an audible sigh, not looking at the girl when she spoke. "You know, you're being way too obvious," she commented, and she saw the girl's head whip her way, but still, Hope didn't look toward her. "You might as well just tape a sign to yourself saying 'Oh, hey! I sell drugs!'"

The girl shifted uncomfortably, and Hope heard her voice for the first time. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice slightly raspy. Hope could tell that the rasp wasn't from drugs, possibly from singing? Was Hope correct in assuming that she was a rock star of some sort?

Finally, Hope looked to the girl, smirking devilishly. "I'm so glad you asked," she said before becoming serious. "I need something, but don't give me any of the killer stuff, alright? I just need something strong."

The girl narrowed her eyes, and Hope had to give her guts for standing up to the brunette. Hope didn't exactly look inviting. "What's in it for me?"she asked.

"Well, for starters, I won't bust your ass for selling," Hope said, seeing the girl tense again. "But, I can give you a few pointers so that you don't get busted on your own either. Sound like a fair trade?"

The girl studied Hope for a moment, and the tribrid made sure to school her features in nonchalance and almost disinterest. She didn't want the girl to think that she was at all desperate.

After a while, the girl sighed and nodded, pushing herself off of the wall. Hope noticed that the girl had black combat boots and deduced that she and the blonde would get along great. "Come on," the girl said, nodding with her head for Hope to follow her. "Let's get out of the open."

Hope agreed and followed the girl down the street, walking next to her. It was silent for a moment as they walked before she broke the silence. "I'm Clover, by the way," she said.

"Hope," the other girl replied, and Clover blinked in surprise but didn't say anything about it, a small smile gracing her lips. Hope rolled her eyes, knowing what the girl was thinking but deciding not to say anything. The blonde was doing a lot more than she wanted anyway.

They continued to walk in a somewhat comfortable silence before Clover turned down an alley. Hope's eyes narrowed, but Clover explained before she even said anything. "We're gonna go in through the side," she said.

"What is this place?" Hope asked, looking up at the abandoned building. Most of their surroundings were more industrialized buildings used for department stores back in the day. Most of them were being renovated or torn down completely, but there were places, like the one they were going to, that nobody seemed to care about. The windows were boarded up and the red brick made it look older than it was.

"Just a hangout spot," Clover told her, pulling back a wooden board and gesturing for Hope to go in while she held it back. Hope raised an eyebrow but bent down and crawled through the hole, standing up and examining the dark interior closely.

Despite the fact that it was bright outside, the inside was almost pitch black due to the windows being boarded up. The main light source was a flickering light bulb hanging above a run down brown couch. There was a large table in front of the couch and an old, small TV settled atop of it. Hope turned around as she heard Clover shimmy through the wooden board as well, standing up quickly as if she did it everyday. She probably did.

Clover pushed past Hope and walked to the couch. Hope followed only slightly hesitant behind, seeing the girl dig underneath the cushions to pull out a few plastic bags of different kinds of drugs. Hope wanted to scoff at her originality.

The girl looked up at Hope with a crooked smile, tilting her head slightly. "Well, Hope," she said almost sarcastically. "Take your pick."

Hope smirked before following Clover in a crouch, grabbing a few of the bags and asking what they were. She immediately discarded the more dangerous stuff like heroine and meth, but she stopped short when Clover pointed to a bag and told her it was cocaine.

Now, as much as you might think it, Hope wasn't a druggie. She mostly just smoked weed whenever she needed the stress to disappear for a while, and she never did anything else. But, cocaine was like the next step, the next high. If she was looking for something stronger, this was it.

Plus, people did it all the time during the 80's, so how bad could it really be?

Clover smiled widely when Hope said she wanted some, almost as if she was proud.

"You don't mind if I do some lines with you?" Clover asked, using a coupon card of some sort to separate the lines on the coffee table in front of the couch. Clover seemed pleasantly surprised when Hope explained that she wanted to do it at that moment in the abandoned building, but she didn't complain, needing to take the edge off herself.

"Course not," Hope told her, smiling widely. Once Clover had finished making the lines, Hope took the small piece of paper given to her and rolled it up tightly. She took a deep breath, winking at Clover once, before she bent down and snorted the white substance up her nose.

At first, it felt almost uncomfortable, and she rubbed her nose a few times once she was done, Clover following suit. She sniffled a little, leaning back as she waited.

She didn't have to wait long.

The weight felt like it was lifting off her shoulders in the most pleasant way possible. In that moment, it felt like nothing had changed, and she was just getting high at school without Darrin knowing. In that moment, she didn't meet her real family. In that moment, it felt like she was on a cloud.

It was unlike anything weed could ever give her.

It was stronger, that much was obvious.

It felt like weed, but with almost 10 times more of the bliss that accompanied it when she smoked. It also made her a little more loopy than weed did, and she could tell it was the same with Clover sitting beside her. The girl had this smile on her face as if she had just finished having the best sex ever, and Hope was wondering if the look was copied on her own face.

Soon, the girls began to talk nonsense before the bliss went away.

"Dude, we should get some french fries," Clover said, and Hope thought about it for a moment before laughing.

"We should," she agreed, wanting something greasy for some reason. Her smile disappeared though as she looked to Clover, the light flickering above them. "But where should we go?"

"I know this place in the French Quarter," Clover commented, raising her eyebrows at Hope and wondering if she'd take the girl up on her offer of food.

"No, not the French Quarter," Hope told her. She did not want to run into any of her family members and suffer from probably a million more speeches about how she should be better than this and blah, blah, blah.

"Why not?" Clover asked curiously, and Hope rolled her eyes.

"Don't exactly wanna run into my family while I'm high off my ass," Hope told her and Clover laughed at that.

"Ew, family," Clover said, still laughing. "Mine abandoned me a few years back. Dropped, me off at the boarding school with large smiles like it was the best thing ever. Newsflash, it wasn't."

Hope noticed the bitterness in Clover's voice and couldn't help but agree. "Oh yea?" she asked, turning to look the girl in her dark eyes. "Mine just reunited with me after 16 years. Trying to act like they have any say in what I do now just because we share the same blood."

"Ugh, you win," Clover said, throwing an arm over her eyes as she leaned back into the couch. Hope joined her, murmuring her agreement.

After that, Hope gave Clover a few pointers on the drug selling business until Clover stopped her, reminding her that they were both high and probably wouldn't remember most of the conversation. Hope agreed, laughing along with the blonde sitting next to her. But, the bliss was slowly fading away, and Hope didn't even notice how dark it had gotten when she sat up, smiling widely at Clover's curious expression.

"Wanna do another line?" Hope asked and saw as Clover smiled widely, sitting up as well.

But, before Clover could pour more of the white substance onto the coffee table, a voice came from behind them.

"I wouldn't recommend that, love."

Hope froze, her eyes widening. Clover had whirled around, looking at whoever had spoken, but Hope didn't need to turn around to know who it was. She knew that voice, though it sounded colder and more furious than Hope had ever heard it before, and the brunette knew that she was in for it now.

She turned around, still sitting on the brown couch, and immediately met his heated blue eyes, blazing like her own did only a few hours earlier while she yelled at her mother. His features were like stone, a scowl twisting his face to look even more ominous in the dimly lit room. He was wearing dark clothing as well, which didn't help at all with how menacing he looked. Hope sobered up immediately.

"Who are you?" Clover asked, and Hope felt bad when she heard the fear in her voice, knowing that it was her fault this was happening in the first place.

Hope grimaced, but answered before Klaus could scare the girl further.

"My father."

 **Okay guys, there it is!**

 **I hope that you enjoyed this longer chapter and please tell me how you think Klaus and the others are going to react to Hope doing drugs! I would love to know what you liked or didn't like so that I can fix it if need be. I'm once again really sorry that this took so long, but I hope this longer chapter made up for it!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	8. Please Help

**I hope you guys like this next chapter!**

Hope struggled against her father's grip, but she knew that he wouldn't loosen his grip anytime soon as he dragged her through New Orleans and back to the compound. He was angry. Hell, Hope could practically _feel_ the fury radiating off of him and toward her direction. Hope, not for the first time in her life, was afraid for her life, wanting to cower away from her father's anger.

"Let go," she bit out through gritted teeth, but they both knew that he wouldn't. She would never escape his grasp either.

He only ignored her, cutting through a dark alleyway as they walked briskly. Hope was surprised that she hadn't tripped yet with how fast he was walking. If she didn't know better, she would think that he was using his supernatural speed.

"Hey! Stop!" she tried to get his attention again, and she saw his jaw clenching as the only clue before he exploded.

He turned quickly to her, and she was surprised that he didn't get whiplash, but she couldn't joke when his fiery eyes were on her.

"What the bloody hell were you thinking, Hope?!" he asked, his British accent once sounding funny to her ears only made his anger all the more obvious. "Drugs? Really? I would've thought you would rather be anything but the things you see in that retched city of Illinois."

Oh, he did not just go there.

His anger seemed to flow into her now, and she stepped toward him, her eyes blazing. "That ' _retched city_ ' is my home-"

" _This_ is your home!" Klaus cut her off, gesturing to the city around them with frantic hands before looking back at her. She flinched at the sound of his loud voice ringing in her ears. She knew that loudness, that amount of anger, and knew that the beatings were just around the corner. He pointed rudely at her, his blue eyes burning into her own. "New Orleans is your home, Hope."

"It isn't-"

"But it could be!" he cut her off again, and Hope's eyes narrowed in thought, thinking of his words. He sighed, running a hand through his curly hair before focusing back on her. "New Orleans could be everything that you want, Hope, if you would stop being stubborn and _let it._ "

Hope kept her expression unreadable, but it was hard to maintain it given the amount of drugs in her system that made her want to say anything and everything. It was almost as bad as alcohol.

She shook her head, turning away from him and hearing him scream as she walked a little bit away. "Don't turn your back on me!" he yelled, and she whirled around, her jaw clenched and her hair a mess from her hands. He stepped forward so that she lost the space she had just gotten, his blue eyes burning into hers. He opened his mouth but sighed and amended what he was going to say. "Why? Why would you go there?"

Hope, for once, didn't respond with a sarcastic comment and just told him, her voice softer than anything he had heard before. "It's all I've ever known," she said, and she watched as he blinked in surprise, his mouth opening in confusion and his eyebrows furrowing together. She gave a bitter smile as she shrugged. "When you get angry, you kill someone, or you paint, or do _something_ that will get the anger out, but me?" She gestured to herself, raising her eyebrows. "I didn't have anything to do. I didn't have money, or a place to legally paint, so I turned to the only thing I had left, and that was drugs."

She stopped for a moment, realizing that she was probably saying a little too much than she should, but she couldn't help it. The drugs that she had been taking only a few moments earlier were making her open more easily up to someone, and her father was just there.

His blue eyes seemed to soften, and she felt as his hands came up to settle on her shoulders. She stiffened slightly, but that was just instinct, and she quickly relaxed once again, wanting him to understand for some strange reason. "Hope," he said gently. "You no longer have to seek a reprieve from your anger in drugs. The lessons-"

"Aren't working," she cut him off, shaking her head. "No matter what you all are telling me, none of the little lessons are working. I still get too angry for my own good." She smiled sadly, though she suspected it looked more like a grimace. She looked away from his eyes for a moment before staring back. "I can _feel_ the magic inside my blood begging to be let out, and not in little amounts like the kind that you've noticed already. Freya has been helping me, but it's hard. It's like my anger is connected to my magic and the moment that I kill someone and trigger my werewolf gene, my magic will grow stronger than even hers."

"We won't let that happen-"

"But what if you can't stop it?" she asked slowly, shaking her head. "What if my anger _does_ take control, and I do something...awful. What then?"

He was silent for a long moment and she sighed, shrugging his hands off of her shoulders and backing away from him just a few steps.

"Do you see my dilemma now?" she asked him, looking so broken and so vulnerable that Klaus was surprised he ever expected her to be impenetrable to any heartbreak. "I grew up hating you, and I'm trying to remind myself to continue hating you because my damn ego is too big to do anything else. But then that anger leads me to drugs so that I don't do anything I'll regret." She paused for a moment before her blue eyes met his again. "Before my magic completely devours me."

Klaus was left speechless. Out of all the things he had assumed she would say, confessing the fact that she could feel her magic rustling underneath her skin was not one of them. He remembered Freya speaking to him of Hope's magic, explaining that she should have more at this age, but he brushed it off. Now he understood.

The moment that Hope activates her werewolf curse is the moment that her full power is released to her control, but without practicing first and learning how to control it all, her magic will consume her. She will lose herself in it, and for the first time in his life, Klaus believed that the warnings of a witch when Hayley was pregnant were true. She could single handedly bring an end to every single witch that has ever lived.

He shook those dark thoughts away and instead focused on the fact that Hope was swaying dangerously, her eyes drooping lower and lower as each second passed. In an instant, he was by her side, catching her as she fell into his arms, her eyelids closing. He looked down at her with troubled eyes, just now realizing how much Hope has been through and how much she had been hiding. She's been in so much emotional turmoil this whole time and Klaus only saw a hint of it; nothing compared to the entire bucketful.

He brushed away a dark strand of hair on her face before quickly picking her up bridal style. In that moment, he knew that she would not remember any of this, seeing how tired she had suddenly gotten from those terrible drugs she had inhaled.

He moved faster than he had ever moved before, sticking to the shadows and getting to the compound in record time. Hope was clutched tightly to his chest, knowing that everyone would be waiting for answers of Hope's whereabouts and he would have to tell them all. That will obviously only lead to more problems, and Klaus was trying to figure out a way to fix it before Hope woke up. Now doubt that the overstimulation of everyone yelling at her for answers would either anger or frustrate her.

And he didn't want either to happen.

 **Alright, I know it's been forever and I know that this chapter is so fucking short but I desperately need your guys' help.**

 **So, I know overall what I want to do for this story, but I still need help on what the main conflict should be, and I was wondering if you guys can leave some suggestions for me with the help of this chapter so you might understand where Hope's been coming from these past few chapters. I can't really write anymore good content without some more of a conflict, but I can't for the life of me figure out what I want to do. I know you've all probably waited forever for this chapter and I'm so, _so_ sorry to tell you that I need help, but it's the truth. I'm kinda stuck and it would mean the world to me if you all could lend a hand so that I don't give up on this story like some of my other ones. **

**Please forgive me.**

 **Thanks for reading.**


	9. The Start of Forgiveness

**Okay guys, so here's what I've decided:**

 **I'm going to include the Raven conflict, as well as bringing the Hollow into play since I think it'd be interesting to have the Hollow come in but with Hope as a teenager instead of only 7 years old.**

 **So, because of that, if you haven't watched season four of The Originals yet, then I suggest you wait until you finish that to continue reading.**

 **Thank you all for your support even though this story has kind of been lacking. I'll try my best to keep you guys hooked, but it also helps when you review as much as you can. It gives me a lot more excitement to keep writing!**

 **I hope you enjoy!**

She felt like shit.

That was the only way to describe it in all honesty. Her body felt tired, but it was her mind that was mentally exhausted, and for the few moments of confusion just after she woke up, she could not remember why.

But then all of the memories from yesterday returned full force, and along with it came the dread of what was to come next. She knew that her family members were probably pissed off, and very disappointed in what she had done. Hope tried her best not to feel defensive at the thought of them yelling at her, breathing in deeply to try to quell her fear of rejection.

She remembered, despite the haze from the cocaine, what she had told her father, and as she mused over her own words, she realized that they were all completely true. She was afraid of getting attached to her family only for them to not be satisfied with who she had become. She was afraid that she would get too angry with something and that she would somehow trigger her werewolf gene. She was afraid that if she did trigger the gene, how that would affect the magic aspect of her makeup.

She was afraid of all these things, more or less.

The smell of lavender was inhaled through her nose, and she opened her eyes groggily, met with the sideways view of the room she had come to know as her own.

The pillow on her bed was smushed against her face, and she recognized the lavender smell coming from there, as well as the blankets somehow wrapped around her. The last thing that Hope remembered was passing out just after her talk with Klaus, probably caused from the lows of the drug. He must've taken her to the compound and into her room.

She briefly wondered if any of her other family members saw her in her father's arms, unconscious, and what they thought about that.

Hope sighed, using her sore limbs to push herself up, the blanket falling down at she turned over onto her back. She felt stiff, and like she was hit with a bus, something that she had never experienced with only smoking weed.

It seemed that though cocaine provided a more intense high, it also produced a hell of a hangover with even the least amount of usage.

Hope groaned as she pulled herself into a sitting position, running a hand through her greasy hair. She looked around the room, knowing that she couldn't face anybody in the compound in the state she was in now.

As she sat up, gathering a change of clothes, Hope saw something move out of the corner of her eye. She looked to her right and smiled gently at the sight.

"Hey Lynx," she greeted, her voice hoarse as the cat slipped through the crack of the bedroom door. Her beige fur was getting a little too long as Hope inspected her, and the teenager thought that it might be time for a trim. Hope had always cut it when it got too long in the past, and Lynx didn't ever seem to mind that much.

The cat jumped into Hope's lap as the girl sat down on the bed, and Hope happily began petting the cat, biting her lip harshly. She turned to the cat, shaking her head sadly. "I fucked up, Lynx," she sighed, wondering what her family would do with her now. She assumed that they would send her back to Chicago and she would go back to her old life, but at the same time, she guessed that they would surprise her once again.

The cat purred gently, as if giving her support, and Hope smiled slightly, though it looked more like a grimace.

The door slowly opened again, and Hope looked up a the movement to see Darrin walking in, almost immediately meeting her gaze.

He wore a loose white shirt and some old jeans, one of the first things she inspected of him as she avoided his gaze, yet it was no use. His eyes met hers despite her avoidance and she immediately saw the disappointment in his brown eyes, along with the slight understanding that he always seemed to have with her. His dark skin contrasted nicely with his white shirt and she watched as he closed the door softly behind him.

Hope stood up, allowing Lynx to jump out of her arms and wander through the room as she faced her friend. "I know you're disappointed in me," she said before he could speak, watching as he slowly nodded. She felt the regret of her decision last night, wishing she could take it back when she saw his pursed lips. "I know I fucked up and made things a lot worse with my family." He nodded again, his eyes still connected to hers. She took a deep breath before finishing. "I'm really sorry, Darrin."

He stared at her for a long time, so long that Hope was afraid that he wouldn't say anything at all, but after a while, he finally rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I swear to God, Hope," he said, shaking his head. "You go near that stuff again-"

"I won't," she cut him off, shaking her head. "I learned my lesson."

He narrowed his eyes. "I mean it, Hope," he said seriously. "Even weed."

She hesitated with that one, having relied on the drug for quite a while without Darrin ever knowing about it. But, staring into his eyes, she knew that she would have to give this up for him.

"Okay," she said simply. "I promise."

He seemed to relax at that, his body physically sagging as he walked to sit on her bed. She sat back down next to him, sighing as she shook her head. Darrin was quiet beside her, but she felt as he grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against him, resting it on his shoulder.

They stayed like that for a moment before Hope stood up again, turning to him. She smiled, gesturing for him to move. "Get out," she said bluntly. "I have to take a shower."

"Oh, trust me," Darrin said with a grin as he stood up. "I know."

She gaped at him and reached down to grab her boot, throwing it at him as he ran to the door. He laughed at her as she missed, the door closing behind him easily as she shook her head at his antics. However, she felt much better now than when she woke up.

She took her shower as fast as she could, yet still savoring the warm water that she had hardly ever got in Chicago. The bathroom was so clean as well, something that Hope had never noticed, yet she noticed now as the nice water ran down her body. Hope could feel the slight burn of the water on her back, against the cuts and scars there.

She would never forget how she received them.

She pushed down those awful memories, needing to think of something lighthearted before she was about to get scolded by her mother and probably her aunts and uncles as well. No doubt Klaus had already spoken with them about all of the stuff she said last night, but she knew that they would ground her or something of the likes anyway, and she was prepared for it.

She knew that what she did was wrong.

She also knew that she had to try.

She actually had to try to get to know her family, especially after all of the shit that she's been putting them through. Even as her hatred for them festered inside of her, she was reminded by what Klaus had implied: that it was okay to be happy without being afraid of getting hurt again.

So, against her better judgement, she pushed away her anger, the anger that she had used as a shield this whole time she had been staying here. She pushed away the hatred she had felt for _years_ , and tried to understand the family that had abandoned her.

Especially Hayley.

She knew that it wouldn't be overnight, but if she actually allowed these people, who wanted to do her no harm and would still want her even after she went and did drugs, into her heart, she knew that it could work. She could have an actual family.

She just needed to work for it. Especially after all the damage that she's already done with her hatred of them still in her mind. But she couldn't change the past, and neither could they, so it was time to start forgiving them for trying to protect her when she was a baby.

She furrowed her eyebrows, honestly very confused by her change of heart, but she blamed it on Darrin and his hopes that she would come to at least be tolerable to her family members. He was always trying to help her with her anger, and this was the least she could do after the events of last night.

Hope sighed as she slipped into her clothes, her damp hair waving back and forth as she buckled her jeans. The ripped jeans were actually ones that she had gotten from Rebekah, as well as the plain black shirt that she paired it with, matching the blackness of her hair. She slipped on her trusty black converse and took a deep breath, standing in front of the door to her room.

She closed her eyes, thinking back to the words of the girl who had been her best friend so long ago.

" _You don't always have to be angry, Hope. The world is meant for happiness, and love, not the anger that you hold so close to your chest. Trust me when I say that one day, you'll push everyone away until you're left alone, and it'll suck. Fix the way that you precieve the world and your life before you ruin everything."_

With Raven's words echoing through her head, Hope opened her eyes and walked out of her bedroom, leaving the door slightly opened in case Lynx wanted to wander around anywhere.

The compound was silent, much too silent for her liking, but she drifted toward the stairs anyway, walking down them and turning to enter the kitchen, where she immediately met the dark eyes of her mother.

Hayley stood in the kitchen, her arms crossed and anger spilling out of her pores. For a moment, Hope wondered if she ever looked like Hayley when she got mad herself, with the pursed lips and stiff jaw. She'd have to store that question away for later.

" _What_ were you thinking?" Hayley asked Hope, trying her best to keep her voice level and restrain it from gaining volume. Hope actually saw this and respected that, once again realizing something that she had kept at arm's length this whole time. Hayley continued though, as Klaus sat at the table in the kitchen. Hope was surprised that the others weren't there, but it was probably the doing of Klaus. "Do you know how worried I was?"

Hope stayed silent but shook her head, looking away from Hayley as she tried to keep her anger at bay. There was no reason for it, especially in this situation; she was the one who was in the wrong. It was just strange to suddenly be scolded for something she's done for quite a while.

"Answer me," Hayley said, and Hope knew that the woman was fed up with the girl, fed up with all of the yelling and disobedience that Hope has been doing.

Klaus stepped forward slightly as Hope grit her teeth, keeping the anger at bay still, but it was hard when she wanted to push Hayley away for trying to scold her like a mother does. "Hayley-"

"No Klaus," Hayley said to the hybrid, shaking her head. "She's got away with so much since she's been here but this is where I draw the line." She turned back to Hope, her gaze like steel. "Answer me. Did you know how worried I was?"

Hope huffed out a breath of air but answered her nonetheless, her jaw clenched tightly. "No," she answered before gathering her strength for her next words. Her blue eyes met her father's briefly before she muttered the phrase out, looking at her shoes. "I'm sorry."

Hayley must've been surprised by the sudden change of character from Hope because she didn't speak for a long time. When Hope finally looked up from the ground, she felt the gaze of her father and turned her head slightly, seeing him nod his head in encouragement with a small smile on his lips. She knew what he was silently telling her.

 _Good choice_.

She looked back to Hayley to see the woman finally choosing words to form a sentence after her moment of confusion and shock. "Well... You're still grounded for a month," Hayley stated and Hope tried not to laugh at the absurdness of this situation. Never in a million years had she expected for her to find her real mother and to actually be scolded and grounded by her. And never in a million years did she ever think that she would take it without a fight.

Hope nodded her head. "Okay," she said simply, feeling as her anger receeded as she thought of Raven's words.

 _"Fix the way you precieve the world before you ruin everything."_

She was doing just that as she tried to see from Hayley's side, worried sick about the daughter you just got back only to find out that she went somewhere with somebody she didn't know to do drugs until she was high off her ass.

Yea, Hope would be upset too.

So she turned to Klaus, quickly changing the subject before Hayley got suspicious of her change of heart and before Hope thought of a loophole through Raven's words. "Got any cereal here?" she asked simply, moving past a still shocked Hayley as she opened one of the cupboards and looked inside, quickly finding cereal there.

"Okay, what just happened?" Hayley asked a smirking Klaus, narrowing her eyes. "What did you do?"

Klaus shook his head while Hope grabbed a bowl, pouring the Froot Loops into it, filling it up with the last of the milk they had in the house. She put everything back in its spot before finding a spoon, immediately moving to the table that Klaus was sitting at and digging into the meal.

"I didn't do anything, little wolf," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "We had a little talk last night, but that was all. The rest is her work," he gestured to Hope, who was starting to get annoyed.

"Just roll with it," Hope said, looking up at them. "It's hard enough for me to not yell at anybody as it is without adding the suspicion of my actions into play, so..." she let the sentence dangle in the air before going back to her cereal.

"Okay," Hayley finally said, nodding her head as a small smile made her way to her face. "I can work with that."

Klaus moves to sit next to Hope, placing a hand on her shoulder gently as he moved closer. "Thank you," he whispered to her, and she nodded, looking to him seriously.

"I'm trying," she told him, but he nodded before she had to go any further.

"I know," he responded, giving her a soft smile as well. "So thank you."

She nodded silently before returning to her food once again, hearing as somebody walked into the kitchen. Hope turned with the food in her mouth, seeing Darrin walk in with Kol close behind him.

Darrin immediately came to sit on Hope's other side and Klaus began to leave, but not without a few parting words. "Come find me when you're done," he told her simply. "I have a surprise for you."

Hope looked at him in confusion and curiosity, seeing as he got up and turned to walk out of the kitchen, Hayley following him and no doubt about to go off and ask him a thousand questions about their daughter. Hope wondered briefly why Klaus was going to give her something after all she had done last night, but brushed it aside. She wasn't going to question a surprise.

"No yelling coming from the girl famous for anger issues?" Kol asked with a joking tone, his eyes raised to his hairline as he leaned against the kitchen island, sipping on a blood bag he had just gotten from the fridge. "Shocking."

"Shut up," Hope told him, but he could see the small smile on her face as she turned to her breakfast again, and he left it at that, leaving the room quicky.

Darrin bumped shoulders with her and she looked up to see him nodding his head, a small smile on her face. "There she is," he said, tilting his head as he looked her over with his dark eyes. "Thought I lost you for a second there after Raven."

Hope's heart panged at the turmoil she must've caused her best friend, but she brushed it off, turning to smirk at him. "Oh Darrin," she said, shaking her head. "You must've known that you couldn't get rid of me that easily."

Darrin rolled his eyes and pushed her away. The two of them laughed and for once, Hope began to think that maybe this wasn't so bad. Despite all of the emotions she felt for the abandonment of her from her family, she reminded herself that it wasn't ever intentional, and that forgiveness felt a lot better than the anger she had trapped inside of her.

She made a note to herself to remember that for later.

 **HM**

After she had finished her food, she actually went on a little bit of a detour before she went to go find Klaus. She needed to do something before anything else, remembering the awful argument yesterday.

Hope softly knocked on the door to the study, hearing Elijah's voice on the other side. "Come in," he said, and she took a deep breath before opening the door, finding the suited Original sitting in a chair and reading a book. He looked up at her in slight surprise, his eyebrows raised but he greeted her nonetheless. "Good morning, Hope."

"Back at ya," she stated, slightly fiddling with her fingers as she looked around the room, suddenly distracted. "Jesus," she muttered, seeing the plethora of books surrounding her and Elijah in the room. Most seemed to be extremely old as well, and considering her background, Hope was awestruck. She had never really seen this many books in one place before, having never been in the school library whenever she actually went to school.

He chuckled slightly at her response. "Yes it's quite a lot," he said, marking his place in the book and standing up. As Hope met his gaze again, she almost immediately looked away. She felt terrible for the things she said yesterday, even if she thought they were completely true during that time. It was still pretty disrespectful.

She, instead, focused on the other pieces of furniture in the room besides the bookcases on every wall. In the middle of the room was a large, oak desk that had a few spellbooks placed there, probably the work of Freya. In front of the desk were two plush armchairs and a couch was adjacent to the desk, leaving enough room for it to be placed comfortably, without issue of running into other things.

However, she had come here for a reason, and Elijah knew that. "Hope?" he asked her, and she looked up, blue eyes meeting his dark brown ones. She felt slightly guilty when she saw the concern in his gaze. "Is everything alright?"

"Yea," she said quickly, nodding her head and trying to remember what she had planned to say before she walked in here. "Yea everything's fine, I was just..." she trailed off before sighing, running a hand through her hair before meeting his gaze again. "Look, I'm...I'm sorry about the stuff I said yesterday," she finally managed to get out, surprising Elijah slightly with her words. "I just...It's been a really long time since people have actually cared enough to give me discipline and I just didn't really know how to react to it other than yelling." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sorry," she repeated.

Elijah seemed to smile at her words, nodding his head. "Thank you," he told her, and she was surprised by how much she's been hearing that phrase recently. "And it's alright," he told her. "I shouldn't have pushed you when you're still trying to get the hang of things here."

"Let's just agree to a slightly new start," Hope said, and Elijah smiled at that, nodding his head.

"I'd like that very much," he responded, and she was surprised by how much better she felt after the conversation. It was like a weight lifted off her shoulders and she wondered if this was how it felt to apologize every time.

She nodded her head. "Cool," she said before gesturing to the door. "I'm going to try to find Klaus. He said he had a surprise for me?" Elijah raised his eyebrows but shook his head.

"I'm sure that whatever it is, you'll either find a way to love it or hate it," he said, and Hope gave him a small smirk.

"Finally someone who understands me," she joked, and he shook his head slightly.

"Okay go," he told her and she chuckled, heading toward the door as Elijah returned to his book, opening it and starting where he last left off. However, as much as he tried to focus on the story, he couldn't get the surprise of the conversation out of his head.

Perhaps there was hope for her after all.

He almost laughed at his thoughts. How ironic.

 **HM**

"Klaus?" Hope asked, knocking on another door. She could hear movement on the other side just before the door opened, revealing her father himself, standing there with a tilted head.

"Ready for your surprise?" he asked her, not waiting for an answer as he pushed past and began to lead her down the hall.

Despite his movements, Hope answered anyways. "I think?" she phrased the answer as a question, and Klaus chuckled at her words, but didn't respond.

She grew slightly suspicious of where he was taking her as he lead her to another part of the compound that she hadn't really visited much of. It was mainly just many more guest rooms that were used for storage, but then Klaus stopped at a door that looked almost identical to all of the others, turning to face her.

She raised an eyebrow. "So?" she asked, confusion obvious in her tone as he smiled at her. She could practically feel the excitement in her veins but refused to acknowledge it. She hadn't gotten a surprise or a present in a long time.

"Well, since I know you turned 16 only a little while ago, I wanted to get you something," he told her, and she blinked in surprise, grinning slightly. "I know it's not a car considering your behavior recently, but I believe it might be the next best thing. Would you like to see it?"

She nodded quickly, her grin widening. "Yes," she answered, and he reached for the door.

"Happy Birthday, Hope," he stated as he let the door fall open, allowing the girl to step into the room as she gasped in surprise and awe. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The room was large, with windows overlooking the busy streets of New Orleans, yet somehow blocking the noise from entering the room. There were millions of canvases leaned against one of the walls, and easel already set up with a blank one, ready to be used. There was a comfy looking couch against another one of the walls, with a side table on either side of it. The tables were crowded with the paints set on top of them, and as Hope turned, she could see a large table with hundreds more colors, all set up in a rainbow fashion so that she could find the colors easier. Hope walled up to the table, seeing the many paintbrushes, new and ready to be used. Gently, Hope ran her fingers over the hair of the brushes, having never been able to get supplies like these. She shook her head, looking back at Klaus.

"I..." she shook her head again, looking up as she caught sight of the beautiful chandelier spreading light over the space. The walls were all white and blank except for one that was completely bricked up, and Hope noticed that there were cans of spray paint next to the wall.

"I figured that you could continue with the art you grew up with," Klaus spoke up, and she turned to him again, feeling the happiness seep into her bones. He leaned against the doorframe, smiling as well. "But in a more controlled environment."

She shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked around again. Everything was perfect, yet she felt hesitant about the beautiful room, looking back to Klaus with slightly narrowed eyes.

"What's the catch?" she asked, not unkindly. She simply felt uncertain that he was giving this to her without any strings attached. Old habits die hard.

"There's no catch," he told her, but she shook her head.

"There's always a catch," she insisted.

He paused, looking at her, _really_ looking at her. It was hard seeing Hope adapt to life in New Orleans, especially with a past such as hers, and the only reason that he created this room was to give her a safe haven. It was a place where she could take out her frustration or anger without hurting anyone or having to go out and find drugs to numb her emotions. He had thought over the words she had spoken last night, and worked hard to get the room ready for her today. There was no underlying agenda hidden in the room, and he told her that.

"There is no catch," he repeated, stepping forward. "I understand what you're going through, Hope, feeling that anger coursing through your veins and knowing that you couldn't control it. I might not understand the magic you feel, but I understand the frustration. This room is yours, and yours alone. If you'd like people to come in or not, that is your choice, because this room is meant to help you control your anger when you feel like you can't. To focus on the art instead of what is inside. It may be a distraction, but I know from personal experience just how helpful distractions can be," he finished, now standing in front of her. He smiled gently, shaking his head. "There is no catch."

And just like that, Klaus turned around and left the room, knowing that Hope needed a second to process all that he had said, and she did. She stood frozen in her spot, thinking over his words, trying to find a way to blame him for using this as something else, but she couldn't find anything. He was being completely honest with her.

There was no catch.

For the rest of the day, Hope hardly left her new art room, only leaving every so often to go into the kitchen and eat something. Every time she left, she had a paint stain on her clothes somewhere, and it was no question as to what she was doing. Everyone gave her some space, knowing that she was trying to fully transition to life at the compound without her anger keeping her away from everyone. Even Darrin left her alone in the art room.

But, as Klaus was passing the room, he couldn't help but smile widely, shaking his head at his daughter's antics. There was music playing on the other side of the door, soft and calming, which surprised Klaus in itself, but it was the door that caught his attention. When before it had been the normal dark wood that all the other doors possessed, now it was different.

He had to admit that the pretty blue color suited her perfectly.

 **Alright guys, there's the next chapter.**

 **I know this took forever, and I'm really sorry. I was just trying to figure out how this chapter would go and if Hope's change seemed way too out of place. It might, but I tried my hardest to give reasons for the change, especially after the break through with the last chapter, which wasn't much of a chapter to begin with. I hope you all enjoyed it and PLEASE leave me some reviews on your thoughts. I mentioned Raven a few times in this chapter, and trust me when I say that she'll be mentioned a lot more in the future.**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	10. It's For You

**Okay guys, let's just jump right into this.**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

Hope fell asleep in her art room once again.

She could feel the papers sticking to her face as she woke up, feeling her body sprawled uncomfortably on the couch in the room. Surprisingly or not, she wasn't sure, the couch was insanely soft and nice to sleep on, which is probably why she often fell asleep there instead of walking back to her room. She could practically feel the paint underneath her fingernails.

It's been about a week since she got the art room, and a week where she's almost always spent all of her time in the room. It was hard to get her out of it, considering all of her ideas of what to draw or paint that she had held back all these years. It was like a dam finally broke, and she was allowed to think creatively for once in her life.

Everything had come to a quiet trickle of events instead of the large tsunami that usually encompassed Hope's life. She had almost formed a sort of routine within the walls of the compound: wake up around noon, eat with Darrin and some of her family members, and then usually return to her art room that she sometimes, like now, fell asleep in.

However, the only thing that had confused Hope or posed as a strange occurrence over the past few days was how much she was sleeping. While usually she managed to sleep around 7 or 8 hours, now she was sleeping up to 12, and she had no idea why. Not only that, but now she almost always had a dream when she slept, at least for the past few days, but she could never remember it when she woke up.

She knew it had happened last night as well.

She groaned, pushing herself up, feeling the paper come with her. Using one hand to hold herself up, she used the other to take the paper off her face, inspecting what she drew last night. She saw her hand almost covered with the mess of paint or colored pencils, but she was confused by the image she found herself looking at.

The snake was green, but also held this blue color in its scales. The snake formed a circle, eating its own tail to complete the shape, and Hope furrowed her eyebrows. Sitting back onto her haunches, she looked at the picture, wondering why she felt this ominous feeling come over her while staring at it.

A knock caused her to jump in surprise and slight fright, jarring her from her thoughts on the picture, and when exactly she drew it. She couldn't remember doing so last night, but perhaps she had simply been too tired to remember.

She stumbled to her feet, throwing the piece of paper back onto the couch as she opened the door to see a very amused looking Klaus standing before her.

"You know, when I gave you this room, I didn't exactly expect you to abandon the other one," he commented, and she gave him a small smile.

"Sorry?" she said, stepping out of the room and closing the door. She smiled at herself when she saw the pretty blue color she had painted the door when she first received the room. She leaned against the doorframe, raising a single eyebrow at him. "What's up?"

"Lunch is downstairs," he told her and she blinked, surprised by how late she had slept in. He must've read the expression on her face easily because he smirked. "And yes, it's already noon."

She gave him a look, rolling her eyes as she pushed past him. "Sorry," she told him seriously this time, shrugging her shoulders. "I used to get up a lot earlier but I've been having these weird dreams that pull me back."

Almost immediately, Klaus tensed, and grabbed her arm tightly, turning her toward him. Hope looked at him in surprise, seeing the worry clouding his eyes as he stared at her. She was confused by his reaction; she couldn't remember the dreams most of the time but she didn't think they were anything bad.

"What?" he asked her and she furrowed her eyebrows, shaking her head. She slowly grabbed his hand, taking it off of her arm as she gave him a reassuring smile.

"Relax," she told him, shrugging. "I can't remember the dreams, but I think they're just normal dreams. Plus, it's not like I go anywhere during the day that I would need to wake up for, considering I'm still kinda grounded."

He seemed to relax at her words, but she could still notice a tightness at his shoulders, and she briefly wondered if this happened with him a lot. He seemed really paranoid over something that Hope didn't really understand was that big of a deal.

"About that," he breathed out as they continued walking toward the kitchen, descending the stairs with Klaus behind Hope. She was dressed in her clothes from yesterday: some simple ripped jeans that looked cleaner than anything she had worn for most of her life and a white tank top. Both pieces of clothing had remaining paint on them from yesterday, and her feet were barefoot as she twisted her dark hair up into a messy bun.

She could tell that Klaus was slightly nervous about what he was about to say next, and that automatically caused her anxiousness to flare up, looking back at him as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "What is it?" she asked, looking at him warily.

He sighed. "Well, both Elijah and Hayley, as well as I, think that you would need to continue schooling at some point-"

"No," Hope shook her head, a suddenly hard expression appearing over her face as she pursued her lips. She immediately turned away from him and continued on her way to the kitchen.

"Hope-" Klaus tried to say, but she cut him off, both of them now standing in the kitchen and the younger girl turns to face her father.

"No. It's out of the question," she said, shaking her head as she folded her arms. "What in the world would make you think that me going back to school is a good idea? Especially with all of this supernatural shit going on?"

Klaus bit his tongue at wanting to reprimand her on her cursing once more, something that Elijah usually went on and on about, as he looked at her. "You wouldn't be leaving the compound," he explained, shaking his head. "You'd be homeschooled by Elijah or me."

"That's an even worse idea," Hope replied, giving her father a look that obviously stated how insane she thought he was. She briefly noticed Darrin and Hayley at the breakfast table, both blatantly listening in on the conversation, but Hope ignored them.

"You need to finish some kind of education," Klaus tried once again, but Hope shook her head.

"I already know enough to survive," she said simply, shrugging her shoulders. "What else do I need to know? History? Math? What good will learning stuff like that do for me in the real world?"

"What about English? Literature?" Klaus responded just as wittily, raising an eyebrow at her. "What about when you're faced with a situation and choose the wrong solution because you haven't studied the way it has affected others in the past?"

She was silent for a moment, almost pouting, before Hayley stood up behind her, joining the conversation. "He has a point, Hope," Hayley said, shaking her head as she came to stand near the younger girl. Hayley's hazel eyes met Hope's bright blue ones, a softness sitting there that Hope didn't understand. "You need to do some kind of studying in order to fully understand the world, and not just the bad parts either."

Hope looked away from her mother, pursing her lips as she crossed her arms. She sighed, shaking her head. "I still don't think that it's worth it," she mumbled, but almost everyone there could still hear her underneath he breath as she looked up at them. "Elijah and I finally got on kinda the same level about how we feel about each other and you wanna throw this disaster into play?"

"Elijah volunteered, Hope," Klaus told her, shaking his head with a small smirk. "If he learns to regret it, it will be on him."

Hope sighed, knowing that they wouldn't let it go and that she didn't really have a valid argument not to unless she revealed just why she found school so hard. She was too prideful to confess her dyslexia, so she just slowly nodded. "Fine, I guess," she said, shrugging her shoulders. She pointed at the now smiling Klaus, her eyebrows raised. "But if this backfires, you don't get to blame me. I warned you."

"Okay, Hope," Hayley answered for him, smiling slightly as well. Hope ignored the small smile, nodding once before turning on her heel, grabbing some cereal from the pantry. She watched as her parents exited the room, leaving her with Darrin as he sipped on some kind of juice.

He gave her an amused look. "You're kind of a handful, you know that?" he asked, but she only rolled her eyes, a smile playing on her face.

"Yea, yea," she muttered before a mischievous glint entered her eyes. Looking up and seeing that Darrin was looking out the window at something, she grabbed a handful of the dry cereal, flinging it at his head.

Immediately, he whirled around, and she started laughing, her smile seemingly contagious as it spread over to him. He shook his head, a laugh in his voice when he spoke next.

"Oh it's on," he told her, and her eyes widened before she let out a small scream, turning and running away just in time so that she avoided Darrin's reaching hands as he tried to lunge for her. Giggling like children, Hope ran out of the kitchen, Darrin following close behind as they passed by an extremely curious-looking Freya Mikaelson. However, they did not hear her say to stop.

Hope's smile seemed to split her face open as she avaded Darrin's attempts to grab onto her shirt or her hand and pull her back. It felt, for at least this moment, like the old days where the two kids would sneak out of their homes to play fun games in the streets. It felt reminiscent of the innocence the two once held before the world completely tarnished their souls.

It felt fun.

The dark-haired girl burst into the courtyard of the compound, seeing the couch and immediately using it as a form of cover as she dove over the top of it. She rolled onto the ground gracefully, immediately hoping back up as she and Darrin faced down, both on opposite sides of the couch.

Making a face at Darrin, she felt her heart swell with content as she saw him roll his eyes playfully, shaking his head at her antics. Darrin seemed to be lifting her spirits much more recently, and she couldn't help but want to be near him as much as she could.

"You seriously want to start this war up again?" Darrin asked, referring to the multiple past experiences of food fights between the two kids. When they were younger, not only had they thrown the food at each other, but they had pulled any prank they could to get the other back. It went between the two for years, but had recently become obsolete, until now.

Hope smirked. "Oh honey," she said, the devil laughing in her eyes. "This war never stoped." And instantly after she spoke those words, she tried to run around the couch to her right and somehow slip past Darrin, but he was too fast. She felt as his arms wound themselves around her waist and she was picked up, her laughs echoing off the walls. She knew he would catch her, but she honestly thought she would've put up more of a fight than what she did.

She felt as she was hauled over his shoulder, hitting his back in protest as she continued to laugh. She felt the reservations of his laughs everytime she hit him, knowing that she was hardly able to slow him down. Hanging upside down, Hope felt the happiest that she's felt in a long while, and she couldn't help but forget about all of the other stuff that's been going on with her life.

However, she knew that her happiness would not last.

"Hope," a voice called out, and the girl in question looked up from her spot over Darrin's back, brushing her tangled hair away from her face. She looked up only to see Elijah standing there, his usual suit cleaned and pristine like always as he watched the two teenagers with amusement. She noticed that it looked like he was trying not to laugh. When they met each other's gaze, he elaborated. "Your father wanted to start your lessons today if you said yes," he commented, and the smile slowly slipped off Hope's face. "So if you could join me in the study, we can start on history."

And with a nod of acknowledgement Darrin's way, Elijah turned around and walked away, leaving the room slightly awkward. Darrin chuckled, bending down so that she could stand on her own feet. She did so, standing straight before pushing him, shaking her head at what just happened.

"Jesus," she commented, running a hand through her hair as she looked after Elijah. She couldn't even believe what was happening. "Can you imagine people back home actually seeing me go to a class to learn?" she asked Darrin, turning back toward him just in time to see him laugh, the smile transforming his face. He looked carefree as he crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow toward her.

"Considering all of the other stuff that's been going on, I doubt that this would make the top most surprising incidents," he replied, and she had to agree. With all of the introduction to the supernatural, this seemed so much more mundane. It was still strange, but nowhere near the level of the things that had quickly become Hope's normal occurrences.

She nodded, but sighed, already knowing that this was going to be a disaster given the fact that she could barely read, let alone understand all of the stuff that Elijah was going to throw at her. It seemed that Darrin sensed her inner turmoil because she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, rubbing the skin there comfortingly. She looked over at him, watching as he sent her a reassuring smile. "Just try your best," he told her softly, understanding why she had been so hesitant to this in the first place.

Hope sent him a smile back, reaching up and grabbing onto his hand with her own, drawing strength from the small connection. She wasn't afraid to admit it: she was absolutely terrified to do anything school related given her past experiences. She hated everything to do with school, but she knew that her parents wouldn't let this slip by. They truly wanted this for her, and with everything they've done to try and fix their relationship with her, she needed to at least try to do this.

So, sending one last nod to her best friend, she moved toward the stairs, climbing up and praying that someone could spare her from the torture she was about to endure.

 **HM**

"...But in the late 1700's, the French people revolted against the aristocrats of the country, mobs running through the streets with havoc and destruction..."

Elijah's voice drifted in and out of her focus as she sat hunched over a history book, her chin sitting in the palm of her hand. She tried not to fall asleep again, considering she had for a little over 5 minutes about half an hour ago, but it seemed like the hardest thing she's ever had to do. While her uncle could tell interesting stories, when he taught anything she _wasn't_ interested in, his voice sounded like a monotonous drone. Maybe it was her lack of interest for it _all_ , but she felt fidgety and stupid when she realized she couldn't even read the history book to follow along with whatever Elijah was saying.

"Hope?" he suddenly asked and her head whipped up, her eyes meeting his as he raised a single eyebrow at her. "Have you been listening to me at all?"

She sighed, running a hand down her face tiredly as she shook her head, a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry Uncle Elijah," she told him honestly, gesturing to the book in front of her. "This just isn't interesting me whatsoever."

He gave her a nod, a gentle smile on his face. He stood in the middle of the room, looking sophisticated even as he leaned against one of the nearby, plush chairs, and Hope secretly wished that she could appear that regal one day. Although, she would never admit that out loud.

"That's alright," he said, closing the book that he had been reading off of and her heart skipped in excitement, hoping that the torture was over. However, before she could imagine her next painting, Elijah crushed her dreams with one sentence. "Try reading the next chapter over the rest of the week and we can start up again after a few days."

Her heart deflated, but she knew that he would notice if her face fell along with it so she masked her features, giving a single nod before standing up. "Sure thing," she replied, wincing at the bored tone of her voice as she grabbed her book from the table.

Elijah looked ready to ask her what was wrong but, thankfully, someone else cut him off. " _Hope? Come down here,_ " a voice yelled, and Hope raised her eyebrows at her uncle, giving a little shrug.

"Well, duty awaits," she told him sarcastically after hearing her mother's voice downstairs, and watched as his small smile grew just a fraction at her words. She gave him a nod in farewell before exiting the room, immediately calling after her mother. "Coming!"

She dumped the heavy book on a nearby table, deciding to deal with Elijah's homework later...or never. She never really liked homework anyway, and plus, it sounded like she had more to deal with by the confused tone of her mom's voice. Hope had to wonder what made her sound like that, especially when everything that's been going on recently has been pretty quiet.

She finally reached the courtyard to see her mom, her dad, and her Uncle Kol scattered around the room, all of them facing what looked like a stranger to Hope. She furrows her eyebrows while simultaneously surveying the man, seeing that he had almost completely white hair and dark brown ehes. His wrinkles seemed to cover every part of his face with years of life imbedded in each one, and Hope noticed that his eyes seemed kind as they flickered to her form.

Hayley, on the other hand, looked confused and slightly suspicious while Hope came toward her. The hybrid gestured to the man, raising an eyebrow at Hope. "Does he look familiar to you?" she asked, and Hope seems to be caught off guard, looking to Klaus only to see him glaring at the stranger.

Hope shook her head. "No, not at all," she answer, seeing her father tense in response. "Why? What's going on?"

"You heard her, mate," Kol said with fake enthusiasm before suddenly dropping he smile, beginning to approach the stranger with danger radiating off of him. "She doesn't know you. Now get lost."

Klaus gives his brother a look, halting his steps toward the man. Despite their rugged past together, Kol knows that if anyone deserves to throw this man out for asking for Hope when she didn't even recognize him, it was her father, so he relented his will to follow Nik's, just this once.

"I know you don't know me, but you know _her_ ," the stranger spoke for the first time since Hope's been apart of the conversation, and catches her slightly by surprise. She had expected his voice to be crackly from age, but it was as smooth as it probably was 20 years ago, even if she could sense just the smallest hint of aging layered in his words.

His words make her confused though, and just like her family members, suspicious. It wasn't often that she was asked for by a complete stranger, and it was even rarer that the stranger had anything worthwhile to say. She mostly ran into people who wanted to get a favor from her or wanted to get connected with other people; nothing had ever really been about her, personally.

And considering that she hasn't even been messing with drugs since she promised not to do them anymore, she's even more suspicious. Nobody sent someone to her if they knew she was trying to quit. They knew better than to get on her nerves.

Face hardening, she steps forward, shaking her head. "Her?" she asked, blinking at him when his face doesn't even change from its neutral expression. "Who's her?"

Instead of responding, he suddenly fished something out of the black coat he's wearing, and she tenses before she realizes that it's a pristine envelope held out to her. She gives it a look of confusion, but knows that he won't leave until she takes it from him, so she walks toward him. She could feel the eyes of everyone in the room trained on her, watching her every move as she approached the man, but she tried her best to ignore it. Although, she really wished that Darrin was there; he would find some way to lighten the mood.

Once she stops about five feet from him, she takes the envelope from his grasp with gentle fingers, not taking her blue eyes off of him. She watches as he gives her a wide smile, almost dazzling in its blindness, and she has the urge to smile back, but wills it away. Something about him feels...off.

She felt a sudden cold fill the room just before it happened.

In one swift motion of his arm, the man, who's name she didn't even know, brought the knife that nobody noticed in his hand to his throat, not even hesitating when he roughly stabs it through the skin. Hope gasps as blood splatters through the air, but he doesn't stop there, twisting his wrist even as his throat releases noises of protest. He carves upwards, and then back around, forming what looked like a circle, and Hope has the feeling of throwing up. She manages to keep her nausea at bay, but can't help herself when she stares wide eyed at him, her mouth gaping like a fish out of water as she is completely lost as to what she should do.

Her mother's hand on her shoulder, pulling her away from the man's collapsing body, is what finally breaks her out of her spell, and she stumbles backwards. Hayley catches her with a steady hand, and Hope turns to meet her eyes, the fear obvious in her blue ones. Her mother, in response, brushes her hair on the right side of her head, and if it were under better circumstances, Hope would've gagged at how much closer she's already gotten to the woman she wanted to hate.

"Bloody hell," Kol mutters to himself, confusion displayed across his face at he looks at the now-dead body on the floor. Before she could make a sarcastic comment about it all, Klaus gains her attention.

"Hope..." is all he says, but he doesn't need to say anymore after she turns and sees his face. His blue eyes are worried, concern almost taunting the air around him even while his face his hardened with anger. However, she knows it's not anger at her, but anger at whatever is happening to disrupt the peace that they had managed to keep so far.

He glances at the envelope in her hand that she almost forgot about, and she follows his gaze to let her blue eyes rest on the fold to open it, wondering what it could be. Exchanging one more glance with her father, she starts to open it, even as Kol begins talking about what in the world could be happening right now. Hope drowns his words out as she turns away from her parents for a semblance of privacy, opening the envelope and seeing that there was just a single piece of paper waiting for her underneath the first layer. She slips it out of the envelope, her heart starting to beat faster with the intensity and confusion of what just happened, but when she opens the letter and begins to read, her heart starts pounding.

Klaus notices first-of course he does-and flashes over to her, his worried gaze intensifying when she flinches away from him, fear in every pore on her face. He's never seen her this terrified before, and he can feel fear in himself growing as well at her labored breathing, watching as she backed away from him, her eyes looking back and forth between him and the letter.

"Hope," her mother whispers, but Hope doesn't look at her, looking down again at the words to make sure that she wasn't possibly reading this wrong at all, that what was happening was _very_ real, and it was possibly the worst thing that could've happened right now.

The letter is short, unlike many of their previous ones, but leaves Hope with such a great feeling of dread and uncertainty that she has no doubt that the woman had gotten her desired affect. Hope knew who was behind the letter even without a full name at the end of the note, and that was intentional. Because like Hope used to tell her, " _What's a game without a little bit of fun_?"

She couldn't find herself having fun by the tone of this letter at all.

It read simply:

" _The longer I wore it, the more it grew on me._

 _After all, she has such pretty skin._

 _-R_ "

The last letter of it all is what made her scream.

 **Okay, please don't kill me!**

 **I know I've been absent more than I ever should on a story, and trust me when I say that I really do feel bad about it. There's no excuse for it all other than the school year coming to an end and the stress of finals coming up once again. However, with season 5 of The Originals coming on, I've managed to find enough inspiration that I know _exactly_ where this story is going to go, for the next few chapters at least. So while I know this is nothing close to a good apology for being gone so long, I hope it's a start and that you can all forgive me. **

**Other than that, I would love to hear all of your responses to the new development in the story, as well as the introduction to the Hollow's influence on Hope. I know you all know what happened in the beginning of the chapter, and trust me when I say that it is only the beginning of a very interesting and very good story. I hope you guys will stick around long enough to read it!**

 **Thanks for reading!**


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